LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

^/y.XX^ 5 5 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



■ 



■*>-• 



K-.* *"■(- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 



Translated from the German of 



Dr. KARL BRANDES 



Rev. W. J. WISEMAN, S. T. L. 



La quale, e 'I quale, a voter dir lo vero, 
Fur stabilise per In loco santo, 
V sede il Successor del maggior Piero. 

Both Rome and Rome's wide empire 'stablished were. 
If truth be spoken, for the sake of him, 
"Who to great Peter's sacred chair sucoeeds. 
Danto, L'Inferno, II. 22. 




BENZIGER BROTHERS. 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 
NEW YORK AND CINCINNATI. 



3> 






* 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G7, by 

T3ENZ1GER BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 
for the Southern District of New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Translator's Preface 5 

Preface of the Author 7 

PAKT THE FIKST. 

I. — Introductory 23 

II. —The City at the Time of St. Peter's first Visit . . 26 

III. — St. Peter's Arrival in Rome 29 

IV. — The Apostle's Preaching 33 

V. — The early Christians of Rome 86 

VI. —The Chair of St. Peter 40 

VII. — The Persecution under Nero — St. Peter's Martyr- 

dom 43 

VIII. —Peter the Visible Head of the Visible Church . . 48 
IX. — The true Church of Christ is Roman and Catholic 52 

X. — St. Peter in subterranean Rome 56 

XI. — The Christian Regeneration of the City, — the 

Paradox of History 61 

XII. —The Vatican G6 

XIII. —The Bronze Statue of St. Peter 70 

XIV. — The City of the Caesars become the City of the 

Popes 74 

XV. — Rome the Centre of the Christian World 80 

XVI. —The Patrimony of St. Peter 84 

XVII. — The Successor of St. Peter become Protector of 

the City against the Byzantine Emperor and 

the Subalpine Barbarians 89 

XVIH. — Development of the Pope's Political Position 

into Sovereignty 94 



4 CONTENTS. 

XIX.— Rome as the Capital of the States of the Church 102 

XX. — The Papal States in a new Phase 109 

XXI. —The Papal States in their Relation to Italy 114 

XXII.— The Saracens in Italy • • • • • U8 

PART SECOND. 

I. — Pome without Peter 127 

II. Secularized Rome of the ninth Century 132 

I1L Pome under the tyrannical Dynasties of the tenth 

Century 133 

IV. —Nomination of tho Popes hy the German Kaiser. 143 

V. —Italian Nationality 148 

VI. —The Vatican and the Capitol 155 

VII. — The Popes at Avignon 1G2 

VIII. The Ghost of ancient Paganism in the Ruins of 

Rome 166 

IX. — Rome a Republic 173 

X. —The City without the Pope 179 

XI. —-The Roman Republic at the close of the XVIII. 

Century 184 

XII. —Rome, Capital of the Tiber-department 188 

XIII. —The Republic of Assassination 197 

XIV. The TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHTH PETER 

and his Rome 204 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



On the first page of his preface, Dr. Btcandes briefly tells 
us that the object of this little volume is "to show the close 
relation, the inseparable union that exists between Rome and 
the See of Peter;" or, in other words, to prove that the 
supreme temporal power in Rome is annexed, forever to the 
Papacy, so that the Pope shall be ruler in Rome, or, at least, 
that his influence in the government of that city shall be par- 
amount, till Rome — till the world is no more. A bold thesis, 
unquestionably, in face of all that has taken place these last 
few years in Europe, and what is now going on in Italy. 

All Catholics must undoubtedly wish that the Pope be in 
such a position of political independence as would leave him 
untrammeled by the interference of any secular power in the 
exercise of his spiritual authority. All Catholics had lain 
see him, too, in possession of such a revenue as would enable 
him to carry on with facility the vast administration of the 
universal Church. Nearly all Catholics have asserted that, to 
secure these two, it is morally necessary that the Pope should 
enjoy sovereign power in Rome. We said "nearly all Catho- 
lics ;" for some few not only deny what the majority have as- 
serted, but daia maintain that it is no longer even expedient 
that the Pope should retain the sovereignty of the States of 
the Church. This opinion, however, is singular and held only 
by some few singular and erratic individuals. How they re- 
concile it with Props. LXXV and LXXVI. of the late Ency- 
clical we cannot imagine. 

But whatever we may wish on the subject, there is no 
denying that the impression is becoming very general among 
all classes of Catholics, that the Pope has but a Very short 
tenure of his temporal dominions. This belief is based on the 
assumption that there necessarily exists a direct antagonism 
between the Papal sovereignty and those principles of demo- 
cracy which have become the ruling influence in modern 
society: — principles, which all admit are destined, for good or 
ill, to shape the future of Europe and European civilization. 



ROME AND THE POPES. 



But this is a mere assumption. Let Europe become demo- 
cratic, rulers of some kind there must still be ; and why the 
Pope should not he one of them, why he should not be able 
to rest his strength upon democracy as well as IsapoleouOT 
Victor Emanuel, wo cannot comprehend. We can very easily 
comprehend, however, the Holy Father's detestation of wrongs 
committed now-a-da ys, in the name, but without the sanction, 
of democratic principles. 

The question of the Pope's temporal power, Dr. Bp.andes 
views from a stand-point, all his own. If 'it be God s will 
that the Pope should retain sovereign political independence 
in Pome, the " Revolution" will rage in vain. The sceptre 
did not pass from Juda till the time appointed in the decrees 
of heaven. Now, Dr. BBANDES undertakes to show in a rapid, 
but masterly glance at Roman history, that God has mani- 
fested in a thousand ways for the last fifteen hundred years 
His positive unaltered will that Pome should know no ruler 
save His own Vicar upon ear.th, the successor of St. Peter. 
The author does not deny that the Pope, for a season, may be 
deprived of his dominions. A Nabuchodonosor may arise, but 
he and his deeds shall perish, and God's designs will in the 
end be accomplished. 

Dr Bkandes' little volume may be styled a plnlosophico- 
historical essay. That nicety and precision which we should 
look for in the tame historian, it would be unjust to require 
of our author. He wrote lor a passing occasion. His convic- 
tion of the truth of his thesis was strong. He was lull ot his 
subject, and thought rather of what he had to say than how 
it mi^ht best be said. Arguments here and there may not 
be put as fully and as forcibly aa they might be. But this 
will not affect the one main argument of the book, the only 
thing which the learned and lamented Benedictine had at 

In our translation we have endeavored to imitate the 
style and spirit of the original. We have striven to give not 
only the matter but the manner of the author. How far we 
have succeeded it isnot ours to judge. 

W. J. W. 

Seton Hall, October 2Uh, 1867. 



PREFACE OE THE AUTHOR, 



This year the Church has celebrated the eigh- 
teenth centenary aniversary of St. Peter's Martyr- 
dom. He died at Rome in the sixty-seventh year of 
the Christian era. The occasion we thought a fitting 
one to publish the following pages. Our object in 
writing them, was to show the close relation, the in- 
separable union, that exists between the see of Peter 
and Rome, the Queen city of the world. This union 
has lasted unbroken since the death of St. Peter. It 
will so last to the end of time. The revolutionists 
may shout "Roma o la morte," Rome or death, but, 
despite their frantic efforts, Rome shall still remain 
the city of St. Peter's successors, the city of the 
Popes. 

It were not to be expected, that a work of this 
kind should be purely theological. In fact, theology 
can have but a very small share in it. History and 
political philosophy are to be chiefly dealt with. 
However, when questions of theology spontaneously 
spring up in the course of the work, we shall treat 
them as far as they come within the scope of our 
undertaking, without, however, allowing them to 
break off the general chain of argument. 

Rome, the capital of the ancient world, was made 
by St. Peter, the capital of the modern Christian 
world. This is Rome's high prerogative, and one that 
no other city can ever dispute with her. 



8 ROME AND THE POPES. 

"Thou art Peter (a rock), and upon this rock I 
will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." These are the words of the Ee- 
deemer. Peter was made the foundation of the 
Church. Peter's see became the foundation see of 
that Church. As the Church was not to fail, that see 
on which it rests, could not fail. Through Peter, 
the Saviour's words are derived to the see, to the 
city of Eome itself. They imply a stability in that 
see, a stability in which there is a deep significance 
not applicable in the case of any other. 

For, although the received axiom be true, " Ubi 
Petrus, ibi ecclesia" — "Where Peter is, there is the 
Chubch, nevertheless, in her normal condition, the 
Church requires some local centre, some fixed spot, 
where she may be visible in her visible head. That 
such, too, is the ordinance of G od, there can be no 
doubt. His will is manifest in a thousand facts. 
The most superficial reader of history cannot but 
observe that, whenever he, who holds from Christ, 
as St. Peter's successor, the power to bind and to 
loose, was driven from that see divinely chosen for 
his residence, a deep commotion shook the world, a 
cataclysm came on, which all but shattered the en- 
tire fabric of civil society. 

Political disturbances seldom or never entail the 
disastrous consequences that invariably follow re- 
ligious ones. It is, besides, always much easier to 
allay the former than the latter. So closely how- 
ever, are the two orders, the civil and the religious, 
intertwined, that disturbances can never occur in the 
one without exciting commotion in the other. Each 



ROME AND THE POr-ES. 9 

acts on the other, and, say the mistaken politicians 
of the day what they will about separation of Church 
and state, each is still necessary to the other and 
will remain so. 

When the unholy effort is now made to under- 
mine that rock on which Christendom has for ages 
reposed, we may well tremble for the safety of civil 
society. It is reeling on the edge of a precipice, 
over which it may roll at any moment, and be shiv- 
ered to atoms in the fall. The Church is conscious 
of the impending danger, and would fain avert it. 
But if it must come, if civil society must rush upon 
its own ruin, she is conscious, too, that mid the 
chaos and destruction that will ensue, she will still 
rest securely upon her rock, and appear, through all, 
living and indestructible, the one great enduring 
upholder of order in the human family. She saw 
the commencement of every dynasty, of every state, 
kingdom and empire, now on earth. She will also 
witness their end. She alone is perpetual. 

Should society in its present form be destroyed 
and a new order of things arise, the Church will live 
on, through, and with, the new states, new dynasties, 
new laws, new rights, new titles that may come up; 
or rather, they will have to cling round her as babes 
round their mother for protection and support. All 
else may fail, but fail, the Church cannot. She shall 
last, for her's are those words of the Saviour: "Be- 
hold, I AM WITH TOD ALL DAYS, EVEN TO THE CONSUM- 
MATION of the world." It is said of ore of the Egyp- 
tian pyramids that it was built before the flood, and 
that it alone, of all things human, withstood the 



10 ROME AND THE POPES. 

rush of the waters, and appeared uninjured when 
they subsided. So shall it be with the Church. She 
is firmly founded on the rock of Peter, and thereon 
maintained by the divine power. Should the storm 
which now gathers on the horizon burst over Europe 
and sweep away every vestige of civilization, the 
Church would still brave the might and the fury of 
the tempest and remain, like that Egyptian pyramid, 
when all else was gone. She is imperishable. 

It is most remarkable, as it is undeniably true, 
that none of the great ones of the earth ever inter- 
fered with the Holy See, without suffering for the 
same. Sooner or later, the man who raised his hand 
against the successor of St. Peter, was sure to be 
overtaken by the marked vengeance of heaven. 

The miserable wretches, who are barking like 
blood-hounds round that See to-day, will, we feel as- 
sured, have bitter cause ere they die, to repent their 
doings. Their besotted leader who makes so much 
ado about the Capitol, had better remember, as 
lately admonished by the majestic Pius IX., that 
should he ever get so far again, the Tarpean is close 
by. But Garibaldi's little day is done. The bullet 
of Aspromonte was hardly necessary to stop his 
course. He has already died a moral death. His 
own ranting killed him. The scrawls, he sends from 
time to time to the press, only serve to show the 
world how dead and gone he is. And he lives to 
see this — lives to see the dazzle of his spurious 
glory die out. The hero that was, is no more. Gari- 
baldi, the hero, has been hurled from the Tarpean. 
Naught is left but the ignoble carcass. His very 



HOME AND THE POPES. 11 

admirers are now beginning to be confounded at 
seeing their idol thus prostrate and powerless. They 
begin to see, too, which is more humiliating, that he 
never was but a dagon, that he really never did ef- 
fect anything, save where treason led the way and 
left little to be done. So much for Garibaldi and 
his penalty. But the man who stirred up these wild 
elements, who hounded on these fanatics against 
God's Church under the vain delusion that he had 
power to repress them again at will, erred gravely 
and sinned deeply. The spirit he has evoked, he 
cannot allay. He would now say "thus far and no 
farther." But this, the language only of the Eter- 
nal. Mortal may not use it. It is said of king 
Tullus Hostilius, that, when of old he introduced 
these words into the augural rites of ancient Rome, 
he was on the instant smitten by lightning from 
Heaven. So in our own time was he, but yesterday 
so mighty, brought suddenly low for madly attempt- 
ing to disturb that rock on which rests the Church 
of Christ. Would he might even now take heed ! 
But does he even suspect wherefore this hath hap- 
pened him ? Perhaps not, and perhaps he will not, 
till the arm of God is laid more terribly and more 
visibly upon him, and the successor of St. Peter 
point him out and say "Thine is the crime" — tu es 
ille vir. 

Between the Church and the world a life-and- 
death struggle is commenced. It is at bottom a con- 
flict between barbarism and civilization, between 
godlessness and Christianity. It is very natural that 
the enemies of Christianity should direct their first 



12 ROME AND THE POPES. 

efforts against the Church of Christ. It is natural, 
too, they should choose for their point of attack, 
that spot wherein she seems most defenseless. They 
dare not approach a strong clear dogma, wherein 
there could be no misconception. Their efforts 
would be fruitless. All Christendom would spring 
to arms against them. But owing to the artful, in- 
sidious manner in which the at ack on Christianity 
is made, it is deeply to be regretted that many who 
love Christ and mean well by his Church, are un- 
fortunately ranged, in this struggle, on the side of 
His and her enemies. They argue that the question 
is one of merely accidental connection with the 
Church; that it matters really very little whether the 
Pope retain or lose his temporal sovereignty. They 
think his independence can be safely secured with- 
out it, and in regard to the whole matter, different 
men have different plausible theories of their own. 
Some woidd wish to see him retain his dominions, 
but insist he must adopt a different constitution. 

Then, there is this, that, and the other form of 
government that he might adopt. At all events, he 
must bring his principles into conformity with 
modern ideas and civilization. Now, this is all sheer 
nonsense. Adopt a constitution ! Every body knows 
how unnatural a thing it is to frame and force a 
constitution upon a population. Constitutions, to 
work well, must naturally grow up from, and be de- 
veloped out of, the ideas, habits, manners, and pre- 
judices of a people. Besides, as regards the States 
of the Church in particular, it must ever be borne 
in mind that the Pontifical government must exist 



ROME AKD THE POPES. 13 

Tinder somewhat different circumstances, as it exists 
for a different end, from any other. Of its very 
nature, it is unique in the world, and cannot, in 
many points, resemble other administrations. Adopt 
a constitution ! Now, what is the invariable effect 
of such a step ? The foreign frame-work into which 
a population is thus violently crushed and squeezed, 
will inevitably choke lip all the germs of civil life and 
liberty which were there in process of natural evolu- 
tion. In the case of the Eoman States, it would at 
once destroy the dominion of the Popes. The 
princely power in those states, on account of its an- 
nexed spiritual character, is necessarily elective. It 
is therefore devoid of all those means whereby here- 
ditary monarchies secure strength and durability. 
This, of itself, renders it necessary that the Pope 
should stand towards his subjects in relations some- 
what different from those of other rulers. But all 
that could be done towards remodeling his govern- 
ment and improving the condition of his states, has 
been done, and that most cheerfully, by Pius IX. 
Other governments, we know, have tried political 
changes. But what were they ? Some could scarce 
count as many years of existence, as the pontifical 
government can centuries. Their existence had no 
significance, and their influence was little felt out- 
side their own boundaries. If these went under in 
the transition, another government succeeded, and 
few, save the immediate inhabitants, were affected 
by the change. But quite different is it with the 
government of the States of the Church. This gov- 
ernment was divinely raised up to fulfil a divine 



14 ROME AND THE POPES.^ 

mission. For a thousand years and upwards, it lias 
stood firm and unchangeable 'mid the many convul- 
sions of European society. And should that gov- 
ernment be now toppled over, what can be given us 
in its stead ? What secret influence of law and order 
can be substituted for that of the independent Father 
of Christendom ? An all important question, this, 
and let him who can, solve it. To disturb the foun- 
dations of society, to batter down, for a wild experi- 
ment, the columns on which it rests, is a crime of 
crimes. Yet such, the sin of our days. Against 
this, the successor of St. Peter has raised his voice; 
against this, both as Pope and prince, he is strug- 
gling, — as Pope resting securely on the divine 
foundation of the Church, and as prince fulfilling 
the high mission given him to perform towards 
Christendom, by defining the duties, tho rights 
and privileges both of the governing and the 
governed. 

And now as to the "progress of the age." The 
Church never was, never could be, and is not, op- 
posed to real progress. She is though, and ever 
must be, opposed to that progress which but leads 
to destruction, and is only a step backwards towards 
a godless barbarism. Her natural and necessary 
action, both upon the individual and upon society, 
is that of a reformer. With regard to society, she 
abominates and condemns the pitiable antichristian 
legislation, which is being foisted upon it, and shows 
by the wisdom of her own laws, that she is the true 
reformer and friend of progress. Every page of 

enactments are 



ROME AND TIIE POPES. 



15 



recorded, and handed down from generation to gen- 
eration for the guidance of mankind, is a monument 
of her love of progress. Pope John XXII., on occa- 
sion of his making a new collection of disciplinary 
laws, thus speaks: " On account of the mutability of 
man, no legislation excogitated by mortals, will be 
found to suit all times and circumstances." 

The collections of ecclesiastical canons and de- 
crees, are noble models of what legislation should 
be, and modern quacks might learn much therefrom 
for the public weal, did they only apply themselves 
to the study. 

Considering the difference of circumstances, the 
same spirit of wisdom which pervades the general 
legislation of the Church, is also clearly discernible 
in that of the Papal States. On the latter, the per- 
sonal views and character of the reigning pontiff, 
will, indeed, at times, leave their impression. But 
taking it as a whole, we cannot help being struck 
with the admirable uniformity of views and meas- 
ures that has characterized that long line of rulers. 
No matter what their antecedents, no matter what 
their education or prejudices, no matter what their 
race, habits, tongue or country, on the subject of the 
temporal power, the views of any one are the views 
of all. They may disagree on all other subjects. On 
this, they had but one sentiment; — the temporal 
power was to be maintained and defended at all 
hazards, and by every means in their power. On 
this subject, there was no doubt, no hesitancy. 
This calm conviction and steadiness of purpose 
marks every act of their administration. 



16 ROME AND THE POPES. 

They looked not to the immediate morrow. 
These dominions were to bo transmitted intact, and 
that power unimpaired, to their successors for the 
benefit of ah future generations. Nothing could be 
tried to-day, that might have to be cancelled to- 
morrow. Owing to this cool thoughtfulness, the 
Papal government can seldom hope for the approval 
of the impatient present. Men hurrying hotly from 
one scheme and one device to another, can hardly 
appreciate the slow but sure progress of the Roman 
States. They decry, they oppose it accordingly, and 
their revolutionary efforts have more than once sadly 
overturned the work of years. But the Popes, true 
to their mission, have, as often, quietly returned to 
their task and resumed their work anew. 

What ! is Pome, that is to-day to all Christen- 
dom, what ancient Pome was to the pagan world, — ■ 
Pome, whose diadem was not lost but changed, — 
"commutatum" as St. Thomas says " de temporali 
in sjn'rit uale" — is she now to lose this high prero- 
gative of hers, and relapse again into heathenism. 
Never. The Eternal City shall not fall into the hands 
of those who now seek to get possession of her. 
Neath their unholy ride, a sample of which we have 
seen in '48, the holy city of St. Peter would become 
the cess-pool of all that is base and vile in humanity. 
She would surpass in infamy the Rome of the very 
worst days of the degenerate and dissolute empire. 
Men decry the Roman government and call for 
the storming of the Capitol. But what guarantee 
of any better state of things do they offer us, should 
the Pontifical government disappear ? None what- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 17 

ever. And yet Rome is to be kept in a state of con- 
tinual alarm by these clamorings ! It is indeed hard 
to understand the cold indifference with which tho 
cabinets of Europe behold the most august guar- 
dian of all law and order outraged and insulted, — 
the apathy with which they look on, while the palla- 
dium of all authority, human and divine, is daily 
dragged in the mire and trampled under foot by a 
vile rabble in the name of progress. The decree of 
Mazzini that the final blow is to be now dealt to tho 
Papal rule, is received by his fanatical adherents as 
quite definitive. He it was, be it remembered, who 
first broached that " modern idea" that the Papacy 
of itself is sufficiently powerful and efficient for all 
its ends without the States of the Church. To this 
day, Mazzini dates all his documents from that 
blessed era of his, 1848. There was an act passed at 
Turin a few years ago, declaring Eome the capital 
of the new kingdom of Italy. Yv'e have since had 
the famous convention of the 15th. of September, 
and the Italian parliament has been transferred to 
Florence; but, though repeatedly asked to do sc, 
the Italian government has persistently refused to 
annul the statute in regard to Eome. It must re- 
main in the statute books as an insult to the Holy 
Father and a standing menace to his government. 
" The language of the diplomatical dispatches, 
emanating from the Italian ministers, reminds one 
very forcibly", says the Bishop of Orleans, "of the 
cloak-covered dagger of the carbomri." The mod- 
ernized king of modernized Italy, still talks of Eome 
as his capital. "Italy," he says, "has begun to be, 



18 ROME AND THE POPES.. 

but is not yet complete." V Italia efatta ma non com- 
piuta. 

And but lately, in bis reply to tbe address of tbe 
parliament, be assured tbem tbat tbe Roman ques- 
tion sbould be settled in tbe manner be and tbey de- 
sire. Side by side witb all tbese open and official 
declarations, tbere is tbe "Eoman National Com- 
mittee" publicly announcing itself as tbe organ of 
tbe Italian government, witb tbe avowed object of 
working by all manner of means to bring about a 
revolution against tbe rule of tbe sovereign Pontiffl 
Tbere is besides tbe "Committee of tbe Capitol," tbe 
"Arrabbiati" and otbers, who are at no pains to con- 
ceal tbeir impatience, and want at all bazards to 
burry on tbe catastropbe. 

Tbus on all sides is tbe Pontifical government 
menaced and kept in constant alarm, and tbe more 
savagely do tbese bands of robbers and assassins dis- 
play tbeir batred to its rule, tbe more encourage- 
ment and sympatby do tbey meet witb from many 
wbom tbu world is surprised to see in sucb a con- 
nection. 

Despite of all bis surrounding dangers, tbe ven- 
erable and saintly Pontiff is still to be seen at tbe 
Vatican, perfectly fearless, craving no protection 
from tbe powers of eartb, but reposing bis wbole 
trust in beaven, witb tbe most confident assurance 
of final victory. For bis city, Piome, be bas but tbe 
bo'ly regards of an anxious and affectionate fatber. 
Her inbabitants be loves, as indeed be does tbe 
wbole buman race, witb a warm, undying love. "Witb 
cbarity in bis beart, and words of pardon on bis bps, 



ROME AND THE POPES. 19 

there he stands to-day, to bless even his enemies. 
Truly a sublime spectacle this, and one worthy of 
Him, whose vicegerent he is upon earth. And for 
our part, even should those with whom it rests to 
do so, choose Barabbas and shout "Away with 
Pius," nevertheless at the sad sight, we must only in 
our tears put up the prayer: "Lord, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do." 

Never since the fall of the Byzantine empire did 
the political aspect of Europe look so gloomy as at 
the present day. Diplomacy is but the shifts of ex- 
pediency from hour to hour. No fixed principles 
or ideas rule the counsels of statesmen. We have 
nothing but "modern ideas," and "modern ideas" 
in honest phrase is simply this, that all manner of 
means, cunning, deceit, treachery, violence, may be 
employed to attain our ends, and that might is one 
and the same thing with right. These "modern 
ideas" are not after all quite new ones. They were 
known, and, alas ! too generally acted upon in dif- 
ferent parts of Europe during different periods of 
the middle ages. But there is this difference between 
those times and ours, that as club-law then, was 
only maintained by individuals, so it was only in- 
dividuals who suffered from it; whereas that law in 
our days, accepted for the regulation of society, is 
driving the human family headlong to destruction. 

Right, that once stood on the sacred foundation 
of Christian faith and justice, and was exercised in 
the name of the eternal truth, and in accordance 
with the ethical idea, is now a mere speculation. It is 
determined only by the prejudices of the moment, 



20 ROME AND THE POPES. 

and right is co-extensive with the word might. A 
minister of state could have latterly employed the 
expression, "might precedes right," and acted there- 
upon, only because such is the idea that rules in 
modern Europe. European international law is done 
away with. " Whatever is, is right," said Pope. To- 
day he might say "whatever can be." The rights 
of a nation now are limited only by its power. Tear 
of the more mighty, is the only principle that rules 
princes and peoples. Relying solely on the strength 
of their armaments, they are watching each other in 
feverish anxiety, each striving to outstrip the other 
in increasing the power and efficiency of its means 
of warfare. The common plea is, that wars will bo 
thus the sooner ended, whereas in reality, by the 
termination of a Avar now-a-davs, no finale is ar- 
rived at all. "War is but a mere local scuffle, in which 
he comes off best, who is, for the moment, best pre- 
pared. At the conclusion, tilings are as unsettled 
as before. We are left with the dark prospect of 
another bloody war looming up in the immediate 
future. Let us ask is the Crimean war all 
Has Sadowa, or the needle-gun terminated the 
German war? To neither question can an affirm- 
ative answer be given. Nay, we may assert that the 
solution of any of the great questions that now 
agitate the European mind, cannot be arrived at by 
material force. A policy based on such grounds is 
degrading, is immoral By the very attainment of 
its end, it would defeat itself; for its success would 
result in the complete dissolution of European 
society. 



ROME AND THE POPES. 21 

The writer has composed the following pages for 
those only, whose tastes or occupations will not al- 
low them to enter on a profound study of the sub- 
ject. Accordingly he has omitted to refer to many 
documents, that would only weary such readers, 
and which, for the rest, it would be needless to 
quote for those well versed in history. These latter 
must be familiar with the grounds on which he rests 
his arguments, and no doubt have the documents at 
hand. For several chapters, the chefs d'ceuvres of 
Roman scholars are his guide. A few of these will 
be cited in the course of the work, as those of Ger- 
bet and Gregorovius as well as the works of Dr. 

DoELLINGER. 

One word now, in conclusion. In treating the 
subject of this work, we are conscious that we shall 
have to deal with questions of vital importance to 
the Church and to society. Though approaching 
our task with an honest love of truth, and extremely 
anxious to be correct in all our statements and con- 
clusions, we are nevertheless fully aware that we 
are liable to err and to mistake. "Wherefore we 
humbly and respectfully submit the following pages, 
as well as all else that we may write, to the judgment 
bf that authority, which is alone infallible — to the 
judgment of the See of Peter. 

Einsiedeln, Feast of St. Peter's See 'at Rome, 18G7. 



PART THE FIRST, 



Commutatum de temporali in spirituale. 
Rome was chauged from au earthly iuto a spiritual Empire. 
[St. Thomas, Exposilioin II. Thess., C. II, LecL 4.) 



INTEODUCTOET. 

The year 1867 brings us the eighteenth centenary 
anniversary of the day consecrated to the memory 
of the great Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter. It 
was in the year of the christian era 67, that Peter 
freely shed his blood at Eome in witness of that faith 
of which his divine Master had constituted him the 
fast foundation. 

Never was dignity so exalted conferred on mor- 
tal man, as was conferred on Peter by the Eedeemer, 
never duty so sublime; and faithfully was that high 
duty performed by the disciple through the aid of 
Him who enjoined it. Peter, though naturally hasty 
and enthusiastic, was also timid and changeable. 
But, in consequence of his election as chief of the 
Twelve, he acquired by grace the firmness of a rock, 
and was never more to waver. He now took the 
place of his divine Master upon earth, as the foun- 



24 ROME AND THE POPES. 

dation of that structure erected by Him for the sav- 
ing of the nations. Peter became, in Christ's own 
stead, the risible head of the Church. He made 
Rome the capital of Christ's world-wide spiritual 
empire. Nero condemned Peter to death, and thought 
thereby he put an end at once to Peter's career 
and Peter's work. He little fancied that in putting 
Peter to the cruel death of the cross upon the Jani- 
culum, he was but furthering the very thing ho 
wished to obstruct — he was but linking Peter and 
Peter's name forever to that city, which had been 
chosen to be the capital of the Christian world. 
The tyrant's purpose was foiled by the very means 
whereby he sought to effect it, and the designs of God 
accomplished. Nowhere can we so clearly see how 
the malice of men is made, in the end, to work out 
the designs of God, as in the founding of His Church, 
and His continual guidance thereof. Those who, in 
their little day, fancied themselves masters of fate, 
and believed they were shaping the course of history, 
turn out to have been only instruments in the hands 
of Providence to bring about its own wise ends. 

As the birth of our Divine Redeemer was the all 
important point of the world's history, so was the 
coming of Peter to Rome the great turning point in 
the history of the city of Romulus. Neither event 
was much known or noticed at the time. Christ was 
born and the world went on its way. St. Peter 
preached and died for the faith at Rome, and the 
city after, seemed just what it was before. The germs 
from which were to spring such mighty consequen- 
ces, needed a long time to open, develop and take 



ROME AND THE POPES. 25 

root in the soil. Their gi'owth was so unmarked at 
the time, that the keenest observers of human events, 
Tacitus, for example, and other contemporary writ- 
ers, either make no mention at all of Christianity, 
or only speak of it incidentally as a thing of no mo- 
ment. 

Yet Kome and St. Peter are thenceforward in- 
separably connected, and through Peter, Pome was 
endowed with immortality. Other cities, as other 
empires, rose and fell as their mission was fulfilled, 
or as the circumstance? which gave them birth pass- 
ed away. Pome alone has obtained the high title 
of the "Eternal City." The foundations of that ever- 
lasting kingdom which Christ established, were laid ' 
by Peter within her walls, and this it is that makes 
Pome immortal. On the tree of her earthly glory, 
was grafted a sapling of a nobler and a higher stock, 
one destined to produce fruits and flowers of heav- 
enly wisdom and grace, throughout all ages and all 
time. In Rome, as in no other city, is one reminded 
at every step, that man may and can live or die for an 
idea, — for the ideal. Peter is the incarnation of that 
idea. Take Peter's successor away, and there is no 
earthly reason why that city on the banks of the Ti- 
ber, should not fade away at once into a fishing vil- 
lage. Without the Popes, it had been such long 
s"nce. And they now talk of depriving the Pope of 
his sovereignty! — of driving him out of Rome ! and 
even some besotted Romans are not unwilling to 
participate in the crime. Should the sad event ever 
come to pass, Rome will find that this patricide will 
also be her own suicide. 



II. 

THE CITY AT THE TIME OE ST. PETER'S 
FIRST VISIT. 

The best authorities that have reached us on the 
subject of early Christian Rome place St. Peter's 
first arrival in the capital, in the year 42, or about 
the early part of the reign of Claudius. 

Rome as the capital city of the known world, 
had then attained the summit of her glory. Under 
the Republic, the city could boast of only a very few 
stately buildings. They were simple monuments of 
Roman worship and Roman story. But when free- 
dom was lost, this sublime simplicity also disappeared. 
AVith her inward corruption, commenced the out- 
ward glory of Rome. The decline of Roman virtue 
prepared the Romans for slavery, and the Ca3sars 
found little difficulty in imposing their yoke on» a 
people already debased in morals. Still the pride as 
well as the pleasures of these masters of the world, 
had to be gratified. This, the Crcsars did, with trea- 
sures brought from the four corners of the globe, — 
with the rich booty wrested from the stripped and 
plundered provinces. "While he had the circus and 
the baths, the luxurious Roman gave little thought 
to liberty. In lieu of the simple monuments of 
the ancient Republic, he was now given to behold 
those monuments of splendor and of art, with which 

26 



ROME AND THE POPES. 27 

the emperors embellished the capital. Augustus 
found Home a confused agglomeration of miserable 
dwellings and ill-laid streets. He could justly boast 
before his death, that he had given Home a new 
appearance, — that he found it a city of brick and 
mortar, and left it a city of marble. 

Each succeeding year witnessed the erection of 
additional private, as well as public buildings of 
magnificence. Rome spread into immense propor- 
tions. Temples, theatres, baths, gardens, pleasure- 
grounds, all of the most imposing grandeur, were 
gradually constructed. Of statutes in pure marble, 
the number was infinite, and such was the demand at 
this time for every species of work in stone, that, 
besides her own two millions of inhabitants, the city 
supported quite a population of foreign artists, stone- 
cutters and masons. 

The pride of the city was the forum, that stood 
in the centre, underneath the Capitol. This was over- 
looked by the ten thousand splendid palaces, villas 
and gardens, that sloped up the sides of the sur- 
rounding hills. This forum, once the people's own 
house and home, had now lost under the Csesars its 
peculiar political significance. In compensation for 
this loss, it was richly adorned all round with the 
costliest works of art, and was made in a manner the 
chief repository of ancient traditions. Side by side, 
however, with this grand memento of other days, 
the emperors were careful to erect still richer and 
more costly forums, as monuments of the imperial 
power and glory. These, with their immense yet 
beautiful architectural proportions, finished too in 



28 ROME AND THE POPES. 

every detail with the most artistic skill, were unques- 
tionably the finest monuments of the city of the Cte- 
sars. Through sixteen large gates, the Romans had 
egress to the surrounding country, and no less than 
eight hundred and twenty paved high-roads led into 
the different provinces, forming with their intersec- 
tions, a network of easy thoroughfares, beginning 
at the golden milestone erected by Augustus in the 
forum at the foot of the Capitol, as the central point 
of the empire, and spreading thence over the known 
world. 

Such was Rome, when St. Peter in the beginning 
of the reign of Claudius, first stood within her gates. 
What impression the imperial city then made upon 
the poor fisherman, brought up in a little inland 
town of Palestine, we can only gather from his de- 
signating her a "Babylon," a word whereby the Jews 
were wont to signify the lowest depths of immorality 
and corruption. 



m 

ST. PETER'S ARRIVAL IN ROME. 

One of the early Fathers describes, in a clear 
and naive manner, the supernatural character of St. 
Peter's mission and the task he undertook in con- 
sequence. 

Picture to yourself an unknown, unlettered 
stranger, entering one afternoon that capital of 
wealth and luxury. He is clad in humble garb, and 
his neglected hair and bushy beard bespeak his utter 
indifference to fashion. The heavy dust on his long 
mantle, as well as the worn-out sandals on his other- 
wise bare feet, argue of long and weary travelling. 
He halts for a moment with his few companions at 
the Porto Navali, and inquires his way to the Jewish 
quarter of the city beyond the Tiber. He likewise 
informs himself of the names of the principal monu- 
ments that strike his eye in the distance. From the 
stone on which he sits to rest, he can descry the lofty 
summits of the Capitol and the temple of Jupiter. 
"While sitting by that gate, and meditating on the 
scene before him, one of the numberless stone-cut- 
ters that were then at Rome, steps up, and, asking 
after news and this and that, enters into a conver- 
sation with the stranger. The following dialogue 
between him and Peter took place : — 

29 



30 



HOME AND THE POPES. 



Pagan—" Stranger, may I ask what brings you 
to Rome? Perhaps, I can be of service to you." 

Peter— "I have come to make the Unknown 
God known, and to have Him worshipped instead 

of idols." 

Pagan— " What do you mean? Hercules! this 
is something to chat about with my friends this 
evening as we stroll 'round the Forum. If you've 
no objection I'd like to hear a little more on this 
subject. But say, first, from what country are you?" 

Peter— "I belong to a people that the Eomans 
hate and despise, and whom they have more than 
once driven from their city. \Ve are now, however, 
allowed to live here. My countrymen dwell, as I am 
told, not far from here. Yonder is their quarter be- 
yond the Tiber; — I am from Judea." 

Pagan — " You are, no doubt, some person of note 
among your own people ? You hold some high posi- 
tion in your country, — eh ?" 

Peter— "Do you see those fishermen at the 
river ? — that's my trade. I have spent most of my 
life in fishing, making and mending my nets. Riches, 
or hinds I have none." 

Pagan— "You must have studied philosophy, 
then, after quitting your trade, and learned elo- 
quence in the schools of the Rhetoricians to rely on 
for a living." 

Peter — "I am but a poor unlettered man." 

Pagan — " But, then, I can't see how you intend to 
make a living! However, I dare say the worship of 
this great god you speak of will so take, that you'll 



EOME AND THE POPES. 



31 



need no other recommendation to be able to get 
along." 

Petett — " I rather think you are mistaken. This 
God Whom I announce, was Himself put to death 
and crucified with two highwaymen." 

Pagan — " Well, then, and what have you to tell 
us about such a queer god ?" 

Peter — " I have to preach a doctrine which will 
seem folly to the proud and licentious, and which 
will condemn those vices to which your city has 
erected temples." 

Pagan — "And you are going to preach this here 
in Rome !" 

Peter — " Certainly, and not only here in Rome, 
but the whole world over." 

Pagan — "And for how long ?" 

Peter — " Forever." 

Pagan — " By Jove ! a pretty heavy undertaking, 
this; and let me tell you, unless you're backed 'by 
able friends, I rather fear the beginning will be the 
end. But I suppose you have some of the Caesars, 
or wealthy patricians, or the philosophers already on 
your side?" 

Peter — " Nay, sir, nothing of the kind. On the 
contrary, I must bid the rich renounce their wealth, 
and call on the philosophers to bow their necks to 
the yoke of faith; and to Caesar, must I say, that he 
is henceforth neither god nor high-priest." 

Pagan — "Tush, man, tush! — Don't you see, at 
once, that such language, instead of arraying them 
on your side, would set them all against you and 



32 KOME AND THE POPES. 

against your schools, should you start any ? — "What 
could you do then ?" 

Peteb — "Die." 

Pagan — "Indeed, I can't help remarking this 
last is the most likely thing you said yet. "Well, 
I must be going. I feel obliged for your entertain- 
ing conversation, and hope we'll meet again — good- 
by ! — The poor crazy fool! And yet, 'tis a pity, for 
he seems to bo a iino fellow.' — 

This dialogue, though of course imaginary, de- 
picts pretty fairly the real state of affairs, as "well as 
the tone of the popular mind at the time of St. 
Peter's arrival in Home. It was indeed very natural 
that his undertaking should seem sheer folly to a 
Fvoman citizen. Paganism was fast rooted in the 
minds of men, — in their passions, prejudices and 
ideas. Idolatry was close entwined with the empire, 
and whoever should attempt to tear it down, would 
become thereby, the open enemy of the state, and 
the governing and the governed alike would adjudge 
such a one guilty of high treason. Even those who 
in their hearts derided and despised the state-wor- 
ship, looked upon it, nevertheless, as a useful, if not 
a necessary means of carrying on the government. 

But in (rod's decree it was written of Pome: — 
"Peter shall succeed Pomulus and the Ciesars." 



IV. 

THE APOSTLE'S PREACHING. 

All St. Peter's discourses to the Romans show 
"who fully impressed he was with the importance and 
significance of the place. God's kingdom was trans- 
ferred from Jerusalem to Rome. The germ of divine 
faith which had for centuries remained undeveloped 
in the soil of Palestine and quite unknown to the rest 
of mankind, was now transplanted to the world's 
capital, where it was destined to grow up into a 
mighty tree overshadowing all the nations of the 
earth. What Peter primarily insists on at Rome, is 
the universality of the kingdom of God. In the cross, 
is salvation for all, — all, without exception, — and all 
stand equally in need of this salvation. 

The personality of Jesus, — "Jesus forever praise- 
worthy" — is prominently brought forward. All 
Christians form on? kingdom of which Christ is king, 
"Whom all must obey and serve. On earth too, one 
alone ruled, who was both lord and god, {Dominus 
et Deus,) whether it was a Tiberius, a Claudius, a 
Nero or a Domitian, names, than which, none more 
infamous were ever written on the page of history. 
St. Peter's preaching now all turns upon the life and 
works of Jesus, from the commencement of his pub- 
lic ministry to. the Resurrection. He shows how, 
when the fulness of time was come, those various 
3 33 



34 ROME AND THE POPES. 

prophecies relating to the Messiah, — prophecies not 
wholly unknown to the Romans, — were all fulfilled 
in the person of Clmst. He dwells on the poverty 
and lowliness in which the Redeemer was pleased to 
appear in this world, to the end he might elevate 
mankind above the paltry, fleeting things of earth. 
He holds up to their admiration, the heavenly wis- 
dom of His doctrine, and details the miracles he 
wrought, the prophecies he uttered, and the circum- 
stances of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. All 
this, St. Peter's devoted disciple, Mark, penned in 
that Gospel, which he composed under his master's 
own eyes. It was at the request of some of the Ro- 
man Christians "a qiubwsdam Ccesarianis equiiibus," 
that Peter had his disciple to draw up these few, 
short, simple, but vivid sketches. He exhorts those 
whom he has won to the faith in Rome, to be such 
as he says they are, when writing to the Christians of 
Asia Minor: — that, as through the grace of Christ they 
were made heirs of the Promise, so should they study 
to be perfect after the fashion of their divine Model, 
bearing in themselves the likeness of Christ, not like 
Him indeed, as partaking in the divine nature, but 
like Him in virtue and in holiness. He tells them, 
that by their faith, they must acquire humility; 
through humility, knowledge ; through knowledge, 
forbearance; through forbearance, patience; through 
patience, godliness; through godliness, brotherly- 
love and through this, charity, which is the fulfil- 
ment of the whole law and the bond of perfection. 

Such the doctrine which the Prince of the Apost- 
les preached to the astonished Romans, who already 



ROME AND THE POPES. 35 

knew little or much of all the religions of the 
Eastern as well as the Western nations, but had now 
no religion of their own. Their ablest moralists with 
all their philosophy, such as Seneca, Pliny and Ta- 
citus, had never dreamt of doctrine so sublime; nor 
had the Pantheon which admitted within its gates 
all the religions of the earth, anything that could 
bear comparison with this. And yet, with God's 
grace, the moral and spiritual regeneration of the 
city was already being effected under the philoso- 
phers' very eyes, through this sublime teaching. 



THE EARLY CHRISTIANS OF ROM. 

Doubtless St. Peter's first little congregation at 
Rome was composed of those Jews, who had gone 
for the yearly celebration to Jerusalem, and had 
been converted by the Apostle's first sermons after 
the descent of the Holy Ghost. They dwelt in Rome 
with those of their own nation, who exclusively in- 
habited a small district of the city near the Porta 
Capena, beyond the Tiber. By the zeal of this little 
Jew-Christian congregation, the knowledge of the 
Gospel was soon spread among the Romans proper, 
and no doubt, in the higher circles of society, too. 
To this Jew-quarter, all the merchants of the world 
thronged to sell and purchase wares. It is not un- 
likely that Peter's first lodgings in Rome were situ- 
ated on the great aristocratic street, called " Vvcu% 
Curnc/ioriim." On this street, was the palace, or 
mansion of that noble Cornelius, who, by divine ad- 
monition was baptised together with his whole 
family by Peter at Caosarca. In this wise, Ave can 
account for the fact of so many noble names appear- 
ing among the earliest Roman Christians. St. Peter 
was soon introduced by the Centurion to the head 
of the Cornelian family, the senator Cornelias Pu- 
dens. This nobleman's house, situated on the Vimi- 
nal hill, was the first Christian Church in the city. 
The senator's whole family, his mother Priscilla, his 

36 



EOME AND THE TOPES. 37 

daughters Pudentiana and Praxes, and his sons 
or grandsons Timothy and Novatus, all became^ 
saints of the Church. Pudens himself died a mar- 
tyr, and was the father of a family of martyrs. 
Priscilla devoted herself to the work of burying 
those who died for Christ in that catacomb now 
called by her name, and which was probably a 
private family vault. St. Pudentiana was so active in 
spreading the truths of the Christian religion, that 
she at one time brought no less than six hundred 
and ninety persons to the pope, all so well instruct- 
ed and prepared by herself, that he had nothing to 
do, but baptise them. These two sisters Praxes and 
Pudentiana, with the most heroic self-sacrifice and 
at constant peril of their lives, interred the bodies 
of upwards of three thousand martyrs. 

The consul Flavius Clemens, who was the near- 
est of kin to the emperor Domitian, together with 
his wife, Flavia Domitilla, and his niece of the same 
name, and still greater renown, as well as his two 
sons, who had been raised to the dignity of Csesars, 
all ably co-operated in these good works with the 
family of Cornelius. The sons, Vespasian and Do- 
mitian, were adopted by the tyrant Domitian, who 
entrusted their education to Quintilian. Their 
father was condemned to death in the year ninet}- 
six, their mother banished to the isle Pandataria: — 
the niece, Flavia Domitilla, who was also niece of 
the emperor Titus, was baptised by St. Peter, and 
soon converted her mother Plantilla, two officers of 
her household, and many others, who were all bap- 
tised by the Apostle. Flavia Domitilla made use 



38 ROME AND THE POPES. 

of her vast resources to support the poor and re- 
lieve the wretched. The better to acquire Christian 
humility, she laid aside all rank and state, and was 
a living proof of the effectiveness of St. Peter's 
preaching. She devoted herself particularly to the 
care of those slaves, who, becoming useless to their 
masters by reason of old age or sickness, were 
cast helpless on the world. These, she housed and 
fed, and, together with her two assistants, Nereus 
and Achilleus, provided for their every want. The 
hospital or house in which these were kept, was at 
the same time a church. The site it occupied is 
that on which now stands the basilica of St. Clement. 
A church springing up as that of Rome did, can, 
of course, have little documents of its early history; 
save the acts of its martyrs. From these, Ave learn 
that the infant church already numbered among 
her members individuals from every rank and grade 
of society, patricians and plebeians, rich and poor, 
masters and slaves. The number of the poor who 
almost immediately accepted the faith, was im- 
mense, and of the higher classes, besides the names 
already mentioned, several others have come down 
to us of the noblest families of Rome. The perusal 
of these acts is most interesting and useful. Not a 
shade of human joy or sorrow crosses the human 
heart, that has not been expressed in those ancient 
archives of the Eoman church. Of the "adorable 
Jesus," they speak with all the fire and fervency of 
early love, which makes St. Jerome somewhere say, 
that " the hearts of the faithful were still warmed by 
the hot blood of Jesus." Hence could St. Paul who 



ROME AND THE TOPES. 39 

had. come to Rome about the year sixty-two, when 
writing to the Philippians, send them greeting " from 
the saints at Rome, especially from those of the im- 
perial household." 

We see here, how edified the Apostle of the gen- 
tiles was with this flourishing young church in which 
the faith had already taken such fast root. The 
Christians at Eome, hearing of his arrival at Pateoli, 
went out in great numbers many miles on the road to 
meet him, to express their love, and the joy his com- 
ing gave them. Seeing at a glance the piety of 
these Christians, the Apostle's heart was gladdened, 
and he fervently thanked God for the sight he saw. 
No doubt, this great joy of the Apostle, at witness- 
ing the fervent piety of the Romans, was motived 
by his knowledge of the important role which that 
church was to play in the Christian world. These 
were indeed days of wonderful virtue, and, in those 
glorious beginnings of the primitive Church, may be 
discovered the great development she was afterwards 
to attain. For the first few years, the spread of the 
Gospel was quick, silent, unobstructed. The Roman 
church had not yet been hunted into the catacombs. 
But, in the petty annoyances whereby the Roman 
magistrates already begin to harrass the Apostles and 
several of their disciples, we can clearly discern the 
coming storm. It soon burst over that devoted 
church, and raged with all the fury of earth and 
hell upon her, for more than three centuries. It was 
the war of fallen human nature against that high 
morality of the Christian religion which was now 
forcing itself on the human race. 



VI. 
THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER. 

In the neighborhood of Trajan's forum, the most 
magnificent of all the imperial forums or courts — on 
that spot, -where now, on the loftiest column of ancient 
Rome stands a life-size statue of St. Peter, was in 
early days the dwelling of senator Pudens. The 
Prince of the Apostles who was enjoying this sena- 
tor's hospitality, used to assemble the faithful in that 
house for instructions, and for the celebration of the 
divine mysteries. The history of a few monuments 
of Christian Rome, is bound up with this house 
of Pudens. Of one only, shall we now speak. 

The senator's chair of state, the curule chair on 
which he sate when transacting public business, St. 
Peter used to occupy in delivering these homilies to 
the faithful. Hence comes it that the pope and all 
the bishops are wont to sit, as a sign of dignity, 
while they address the people. This very same 
chair, — the Cathedra, — that Peter then made use of, 
is now St. Peter's Chair, — the Apostolic Chair, the 
Holy See, or Seat. From such chairs of state — 
Cathedrae — have the bishops' churches derived the 
name of cathedrals. But the Pope's church called 
after the very identical chair that Peter occupied, is 
designated, in token of its being the highest author- 

40 



KOME AND THE POPES. 



41 



ity in the world, the Chair or See of Peter, the Papal 
Chair, or the Holy See. 

This chair is of wood, with ornamental arches of 
exquisite workmanship, supported by pillars of pure 
gold. Pound the back are mythological figures 
in ivory, carved in bass-relief. The workmanship 
belongs to the very best period of ancient Roman 
art. The deeds of Heraclius are represented in the 
bass-relief. This proves clearly that the chair -was 
originally destined for heathen use, as it is by no 
means likely that one made for a Christian bishop 
would be thus ornamented. Besides it can hardly 
be admitted that such a degree of perfection in 
the art of sculpture was attained at a later epoch. 
There are iron rings attached to the chair, through 
which rods used to be passed, when it was taken 
from one place to another. Such portable chairs 
began to be used by the Roman nobles in the reign 
of Claudius. Regarding this novelty, Justus Lipsius 
remarks: "At the time of Augustus there were none 
of these portable chairs — the litter was alone in 
fashion. After Claudius the litter was seldom seen; 
the chair took its place." It is quite likely then, that 
the senator Pudens, one of the wealthiest of the 
Roman patricians, who could leave his daughter the 
boundless wealth he did, was among the first to 
follow the rising fashion, and got this very costly 
piece of furniture made, while St. Peter was still his 



It would appear as if this wooden chair partook 
in a manner of the unchangeableness of the Holy 
See, of which it is the material representative. 



4:2 ROUE AND THE POPES. 

This monument of the infant Church is already up- 
wards of eighteen hundred years old, and has passed 
uninjured through all the troubles and revolutions 
that have in that time fallen upon Ronie and 'the 
Holy See. Some two centuries ago, it was encased 
in bronze, and now stands in the tribune or choir of 
St. Peter's. The chair or case in bronze is support- 
ed by four figures representing four of the greatest 
doctors of the Church— two Greek, Athanasius and 
Chrysostomus, and two Latin, Ambrose and Au- 
gustine. In the midst is an altar dedicated to the 
Virgin and all the canonized popes. It is called the 
altar of the Chair of Peter, and was lately repaired 
and consecrated anew by Pius the Ninth, the two 
hundred and sixtieth successor of St. Peter. 



VII. 

THE PEESECUTION UNDER NERO— ST. PE- 
TER'S MARTYRDOM. 

A short time after founding the Church in Rome, 
St. Peter left the city, giving charge of the congrega- 
tion in his absence to Linus and Cletus. He did not 
return till the year G4. Nero was then emperor, 
and during his reign it was, that the first storm of 
persecution burst over the Roman church. 

Hatred of Christianity was at first only indirectly 
the cause of this persecution. It was only when the 
tyrant's thirst for blood was well aroused, that hate of 
the Christian name began to be the one simple motive 
of this fearful persecution. Nero conceived the silly 
wish to build the world's capital anew and call it 
after his own name, Neropolis. To this wish is as- 
cribed by cotemporary writers the dreadful confla- 
gration that broke out in Rome during Nero's reign. 
It completely destroyed three out of the fourteen 
quarters of the city, and left seven others little bet- 
ter than a pile of blackened ruins. The fire raged 
six days and seven nights. 

Notwithstanding the city was restored at a most 
lavishing expense and in an incredibly short space 
of time, the Romans could not altogether forgive Nero, 
though now prodigal in his liberality to the suffer- 
ers, the crime of causing the fire. He now lost the 

43 



44 



ROME AND THE POPES. 



attachment even of these degenerate Romans, who 
had so long basely clung to him. 

To remove tho odium and the consequences of 
this crime from himself, the emperor laid it to the 
charge of the Christians. These, he knew, were al- 
ready out of favor with the Romans. Wretches were 
bribed to accuse them publicly, and thousands — 
"ingens muUitudo"~tDX\a,i die for a crime they had 
never thought of. Tacitus informs us that their 
penalties were invariably accompanied with wanton 
indignities. Some were cast to wild beasts, torn by 
dogs, or fastened to the cross; while others were 
smeared over with pitch, hung up and set fire to, to 
light the streets by night. In this manner Nero had 
his Vatican gardens lit up, tho very ground on which 
now stands the Vatican Palace and St. Peter's 
Church, the Capitol of Christendom. 

This persecution was the baptism of blood of the 
infant Roman church. It lasted till the tyrant's 
death in the year Gd. 

After his return to Rome in the year 61, Peter 
addressed his epistles to the churches of Asia Mi- 
nor. In these we discover forebodings of the coin- 
ing persecution. It is his part, as a good shepherd, 
to watch over those committed to his keeping in all 
troubles and dangers. St. Paul was also now re- 
turned to Rome. Though chained to one of his 
keepers, he fearlessly continued to preach the Gos- 
pel, so that his prison in the Via Lata was made 
to serve as a church. 

In view of his approaching death, the Prince of 
the Apostles was careful to provide a successor for 



'ROME AND THE POPES. 45 

the high office of Chief Bishop. Accordingly, in ad- 
dition to these already consecrated, he elevated Cle- 
ment, his own disciple, to the episcopal dignity. Pe- 
ter's wife had followed him to Rome during the per- 
secution, and there preceded him to martyrdom. 
Eusebius, on the authority of St. Clement, tells us 
that as she was led forth by the executioners, Peter 
went to meet her. The joyful alacrity with which 
she faced her doom, made a deep impression on the 
Apostle. He earnestly thanked God for the happy 
lot that had been assigned her, who had been the 
companion of his life. He called to her by name, 
and simply said: "Think of the Lord." The me- 
mory of the happy death she died, was not without 
its effect upon himself, when he was soon after led 
forth to meet the same fate. 

At this time Peter did not think the day of his 
own death so nigh. There stands on the Appian 
way, at a short distance from the city, a little chapel 
or oratory which is the object of a pious and affect- 
ing tradition concerning St. Peter. It appears that 
the Apostle, following the counsel of his divine Mas- 
ter, "When they persecute you in one city, flee into 
another," was about to make his escape from Rome 
at this time. He was forced to this step by the im- 
portunities of the faithful who begged him for their 
sakes to provide for his own safety. On the night 
of his intended flight, as he was starting from the 
house that occupied the site where now the chapel 
stands, he was met by Christ, going with his cross 
towards the city. Peter in astonishment asked Him : 
"Lord whither ?" — Christ answered: "I come here 



46 ROME AND THE POPES. 

to Rome to get crucified again." Peter understood 
His meaning: be returned to the city and remained 
directing his flock till seized by the satellites of Nero. 

In the year G7, the emperor returned from his 
literary (!) travels in Greece. 'Mid the scenes of 
cruelty which Suetonius describes, Nero's thirst for 
blood was kindled anew. At one time he thought of 
putting the whole senate to death, because he fan- 
cied they were not quite as docile as was proper. In 
another whim he resolved to extirpate Christianity. 
Peter was arrested and confined in the Mamertine 
prison near the Capitol. During his confinement he 
went on with the work of conversion, as Paul, who was 
now likewise in the Mamertine, had done in the Via 
Lata. The jailors, with forty-seven others, were in 
this way gained to Christ. After nine months im- 
prisonment he was led forth to execution. Those 
condemned to the cross were not put to death at the 
same place with those who were to die by the 
sword. Paul was among the latter, and obtained his 
crown on the road to Ostia, while Peter was taken 
to the place of crucifixion cither on the Janiculum 
or on the Vatican hill. Tradition is divided as to 
which of these two spots it was, on which he suffered. 
For the rest, both are very near each other. 

An inscription placed between two small pillars 
on the Ostian road, indicates the place where the 
two Apostles took their last farewell of each other 
on earth. According to this, the Apostle of the 
gentiles first addresses Peter: "Peace be with thee, 
thou, the foundation of the church, the pastor of aU 
Christ's flock." Whereupon St. Peter replies: "Go 



KOME AND THE POPES. 47 

in peace, thou, the teacher of all that is good, thou, 
the leader of the righteous on the path of salvation." 
Though it is very probable these salutes were never 
in reality exchanged, yet they express "what must na- 
turally have passed through the minds of both these 
heroes of the faith at that moment. The two had 
done more for Eome and the world than was ever 
fabled of Komulus and Remus. 

Peter is now on his way to the place of execution. 
The prophecy of his divine Master that "in his old 
age his hands should be streched out and bound, 
and he should be led by another whither he would 
not," is about to be fulfilled. The mystery of that 
"Follow me, thou," is revealed. Peter was a true 
unflinching follower of Christ in his life, he is to be 
such now in his death. He was nailed to the cross, 
and according to the most reliable traditions was, at 
his own request, crucified with his head downwards. 
The generally received authorities say his death took 
place in the year 67. 

As to the fact of St. Peter's crucifixion at Rome 
there never was a serious doubt. The entire history 
of the early church bears witness to it. The doubts 
which infidel writers from time to time thought to 
raise on the subject, could not for a moment with- 
stand the strong tide of historical and traditional 
evidence testifying to the event, and dating as 
far back as the first century. Even before the close 
of this century, St. Peter's martyrdom was a fact so 
universally known that St. John could content him- 
self with a bare allusion thereto, to be generally un- 
derstood. 



VIII. 

PETER THE VISIBLE HEAD OF THE VISIBLE 
CHURCH. 

The great boon Christ procured us in the Re- 
demption is, that we may all be one in God, and on* 
with God, and He left us His own merits as the 
means whereby to attain this holy unity. 

The night before He suffered, after giving the 
Twelve His sacred body andblood 3 both to signify and 
to cause this unity between Him and His, He prayed 
to His heavenly Father and said: — "And not for 
them only do I pray, but for those also who through 
their word shall believe in Me: that they all may bo 
one as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they 
also may be one in Us; that the world may believe 
that Thou hast sent Me." 

Now this one life, originating in the Redeemer, 
should quicken all mankind— it should be, as it 
were, the heart's-blood of the race, and so would 
there lie one faith, one baptism, one Lord, and one 
God. To this end, did Christ found His Church; 
this, the meaning of her existence; this, her place in 
the world's history, and, therefore, must she last 
through all time. This unity of the faithful, in 
Christ and with Christ, must be visible, must present 
itself to the senses, that mankind may be able to 
learn the high mission of the Saviour. 

48 



EOME AND THE POPES. 49 

Had Christ chosen to abide with us in a visible 
manner He could Himself be our visible Lead. He 
would govern and arrange all things, and be the 
centre of unity, from which all that is Christian 
should radiate. But as He did not think lit to re- 
main forever with us in the flesh, save under the 
mysterious sacramental veils, He had needs leave us 
some vice-gerent who should- act in His name, and 
be for us a visible bond of that union which the 
Eedemption procured us, the visible head of all the 
faithful. After the three-fold protestation of his 
faith and love, Peter was chosen by his divine 
Master to be this visible head. 

What now, let us imagine, must be the anxiety 
of a frail mortal man, placed thus at the head of a 
church, whose members are scattered the world 
over, and who has to contend, all at once, against 
those who hate and war against the Christian name, 
against the ambition and avarice of princes, against 
infidelity, heresy and the vicissitudes and revolutions 
of society ? Christ led St. Peter, as it were, by the 
hand to Rome. But this did not seem to smoothen, 
but rather to increase the difficulty. For by the very 
fact that Rome was the centre of earthly power, it 
only seemed the more difficult ever to make it the 
centre of Christianity, the see of Christ's vicar upon 
earth. And yet, Peter is to-day in Rome, wearing 
the triple crown, and, for the last eighteen hundred 
years, has borne unshaken the burden of his high 
office. Kingdoms, he saw rise around him that are 
now no more, while ambassadors from the nations 
of the earth are at his court, and he sends his own 
4 



50 ROME AND THE POPES. 

— a latere — to the different potentates of Christen- 
dom, and his servants to the farthest ends of the 
earth, even to those nations, and tribes, and peoples, 
that are yet unknown to history. He rules at Rome, 
and is the only ruler on earth that can say, he nei- 
ther built, nor conquered, nor bought, nor was given, 
his city, and yet that he is that city's very inmost 
life, that he quickens and vivifies it as the blood 
does the human body. 

Here is in truth a strange thing in history. This 
unusual, and, historically, almost inexplicable eleva- 
tion of Christ's Vicar, the successor of St. Peter, has 
its real foundation in the eternal decrees of God 
"Who governs this world by His Providence, Who 
raises up the mighty and dashes them again as He 
lists to the dust, and Who appoints years and limits 
tc the nations. Though disposing all things accord- 
ing tc His divine Will, His action on human events 
is hidden from our ken. Our purpose here, is to 
trace in regard to the Holy See, the mysterious 
workings of God as far as history lifts the veil and 
unfolds them to our view. 

The unity of all the members under their one 
head, is the best witness to the succession of our 
church from the Apostles, a proof, so to say, of our 
authenticity. Without visible union of some sort, 
there can be neither spiritual nor intellectual union 
of any kind among men. The idea of an invisible 
communion between individuals scattered the world 
over who never saw each other, is sheer nonsense. 
St. Paul knew nothing of such a union or com- 
munion. Y\~hen speaking of individuals, he says that 



ROME AND r ;HE POPES. 61 

each and every one must be a part of the one whole, 
that the same spirit must pervade the different mem- 
bers, and that each with this one self-same spirit 
must be animated. In another place he inculcates 
the necessity of this unity, employing the simile 
drawn from the different parts of the human body, 
each part having its own resx>ective functions to per- 
form, yet all making up one body subject to one 
head. The Apostle's heart seems to beat quicker 
with joy, as he witnesses with his own eyes what 
that church is, to which, as to their head, all other 
churches are to be united in one body. All alike 
and together gain access to God, Who has united 
them under one visible head, in one body, and one 
spirit. It is thus the Apostle of the gentiles con- 
ceives and portrays the Church of Christ. It is one 
body and one soul with its one visible head, Peter. 
The theory of the church having but spiritual unity 
is merely the old error of the Docetians, who, al- 
ready in the days of St. John, the Apostle, fell into 
heresy regarding Christ's body, maintaining that 
by "this was meant the Christian revelation, Christ's 
greatest work. This same error, that would formerly 
make Jesus a mere phantom, would now make Jesus' 
church an ideal nothing, a mere abstract idea. The 
thing is so absurd, it is not worth dwelling on. 



IX. 

THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS ROMAN 
AND CATHOLIC. 

It is only through Peter that the Church is the 
Church, that is, a visible body under one visible 
head. 

From the fact that Peter fixed his see in Rome, 
that see became the chief Apostolic, the primatial 
see of Christianity. As Peter's successors can never 
fril, but must appear to the end of time as bishops 
of Rome, so is Rome thereby become, in truth, the 
"Eternal City." Pope after Pope must succeed unto 
the consummation of the world, and Rome must 
ever remain, to be the root of that vast tree whose 
branches stretch from pole to pole. It is only 
through Rome that the other churches are united 
with each other. They are one with Rome and so, 
one with each other. Hence a characteristic mark 
of all true Christian churches is to be Roman. 

As the church, according to Christ's command, 
is to teach all nations, and as she is, according to 
the divine promise, to last till the end of time, she 
is thus Catholic or universal both as to place and 
time. This twofold Catholicity is one of her essen- 
tial attributes, and this characteristic of the Church 
strikes one in a particular manner at Rome. 

52 



ROME AND THE POPES. 5d 

During the Pontificate of St. Evaristus who in 
the year 95 followed his predecessors to martyrdom, 
the Church began to be called Catholic. This name 
was given her to distinguish those of the true faith 
from the heretical sects that were already cropping 
up, especially the Gnostics. Many of these came out 
of Asia to Rome, and, though cast out from the 
bosom of the Church for their errors in faith and 
morals, persisted while a disgrace to the name in call- 
ing themselves Christians. "We know the salutary 
severity with which St. Paul treated such unworthy 
members of the Church. We know also what a 
horror St. John had of the heretic Cerinth who per- 
verted the doctrine of his divine Master. The 
Catholic Church in this, as in all else, follows the 
word and example of the Apostles. Every Catholic 
knows her jealous laws in regard to heresy, and he is 
proud to think of the unity and communion of all 
the faithful which is the result. True he is deprived 
of the exercise of private judgment in certain mat- 
ters. But this is merely depriving him of the liberty 
to err. Such a privation is a boon, not a disadvant- 
age. It is the safeguard whereby the perfect unity 
and communion of the faithful is preserved. The 
Church, established for the salvation of men, is Cath- 
olic above all else in her charity. Her love, like that 
of her divine Founder, embraces all mankind from 
Adam down through all time, past, present, and to 
come. This charity is kept ever burning by the re- 
membrance of that prayer of her great High-Priest. 
"Not for these only do I pray, but also for all those 
who through their word shall believe in Me." 



54 ROME AND THE POPES. 

It is very remarkable, that, from the first, a cer- 
tain analogy was unmistakably claimed by the new 
Christian Kome with the ancient capital of the world. 
There was this difference, however, that the one was 
by a divine ordinance, whereas the other fell out ac- 
cording to the natural course of things. This differ- 
ence is indeed as wide as the poles are asunder. It 
should never be overlooked. But, bearing this in 
mind, we cannot but be struck with the otherwise 
close analogy drawn from the earliest times by 
Christian writers between ancient Rome, with her 
naturally acquired gifts and position in the world, 
and Christian Borne in what she was made by the 
divine favor. This is pointedly set forth by St. Cle- 
ment in his first epistle to the Corinthians. In that 
church a schism, subsequent to the one spoken of by 
St. Paul, broke out in Clement's time. The Corinth- 
ians sent a deputation to the Pope claiming his ad- 
vice and assistance to put down the scandal. They 
complained that some ambitions individuals had 
formed round themselves a party and sought forci- 
bly to eject certain worthy priests from the churches 
over which they had been set by the Apostles them- 
selves, in order to get their places. Contrary to all 
law and precedent, these men under. ook to disturb 
the ecclesiastical affairs of Corinth. They assumed 
the discharge of pastoral duties as if they had been 
regularly appointed, and, while they boasted of the 
righteousness of their lives, they were bringing by 
their sinful ambition the sorest scandal and anarchy 
upon the church of Corinth. It was under such 
circumstances, St. Clement wrote the epistle we have 



KOME AND THE POPES. 55 

mentioned. It betrays throughout the utmost cau- 
tion, prudence and forbearance, with rare wisdom 
and Apostolic earnestness. The vigor of the old 
republican heroes that made Borne mistress of the 
world is also clearly discernible in the style of Cle- 
ment, but the severity and stubborn obstinacy of the 
old Koman is now softened by the mild spirit of 
Christianity. Instead of the crooked policy of mere 
earthly ambition, we find the compassionate love of 
one who sorrows for the sins of all mankind. 

This remarkable epistle is a model of the Chris- 
tian pastoral, and is, in every respect, worthy of a 
disciple and successor of St. Peter. Among other 
things Clement asserts the divine origin of the Chris- 
tian hierarchy. He shows how the Apostles under 
the guidance of Christ appointed bishops, priests 
and deacons over the different churches. They ap- 
pointed such to succeed themselves in carrying on 
the work of the Gospel, and, according as some 
died, others were set up in their stead. They thus 
established the law of the Apostolic succession. 
Clement wrote this epistle to the Corinthians in 
classical Greek about the year 95. 

The vigorous, all conquering spirit of ancient 
Rome is born anew to Christian Rome, and clearly 
displays itself already, though in a different manner 
and to a different end. 



X. 

ST. PETER IN SUBTERRANEAN ROME. 

The catacombs of Rome are the best archives 
wherein to search for the early history of Christian- 
ity. Most of the missing links in that history have 
been already found in these vaults, and, day after 
day, others are being exhumed. Scarce a doctrine 
of the Church or a custom, that is not found ex- 
pressed, by word or symbol, on the walls, the slabs, 
or the instruments of worship discovered in the ca- 
tacombs. Now, if any one idea might be said to pre- 
dominate in the silent language of these vaults of 
the dead, it is that of the primacy of St. Peter. 

When the persecution under Nero broke out, the 
Christians of Rome could no longer hold their as- 
semblies in the city. For secresy's sake they betook 
themselves to these subterranean caverns. The 
sacred mysteries were celebrated at the crossing of 
the ways, or in the little excavated chambers of the 
place. Here too they buried their dead, and here 
with pious veneration they laid the mangled remains 
of their numberless martyrs. Two hundred and fif- 
ty years had the Christians of Rome to hide them- 
selves thus away in the bowels of the earth. Then, at 
length, in virtue of their heroic patience and strong 
endurance, in virtue of the torrents of blood freely 
shed by their martyrs, were the persecutors over- 

56 



ROME AND THE POPES. 57 

come. By this baptism of blood was the Church of 
Borne purified. Subterranean Rome came forth and 
took possession of the Seven Hills. Peter is lord of 
the Vatican, and the successor of the Cresars, Con- 
stantine, goes to build him a city on the Bosphorus. 
Thus did persevering endurance come off triumph- 
ant in the end, or as the poet expressed it: — 

" The enduring, not the mighty, 
Win the day and wear the laurels." 

To the internal causes that had long been bring- 
ing on the dissolution of the Western empire, was 
now added that terrible invasion of the Northern 
barbarians, that finds no parallel in the history of 
the human race. Countless and countless hordes 
poured 'down in hot succession from the bleak and 
barren North upon the fertile fields of Southern 
Europe. Ere Italy could recover from the devasta- 
tion and desolation of one flood of barbarism, an- 
other and another rolled over her. This continued 
for generations, and in the confusion into which 
society was thrown all memory of subterranean 
Borne, save a few of the most remarkable spots, was 
completely lost. After a lapse of centuries, this city 
of the early Christians was discovered, and, by de- 
grees, opened up and explored as Pompeii and Her- 
culaneum. The researches made through its miles 
and miles of streets, have shed light on many of the 
misty points of the early history of the Church, and 
afford the most unmistakable evidence, that the 
Church of to-day is one in faith and dogma with the 
Church of the first century. 



58 EOME AND THE POPES. 

We can here only cast a glance at one part of 
this subterranean Kome, that near the Vatican. The 
neighborhood of the Vatican where Nero had his 
gardens and circus, came, as Tacitus informs us, to 
be thought unhealthy, so that people were unwilling 
to build there. The place was therefore very prob- 
ably a lonesome one. Here the Christians first be- 
gan to sink then- subterranean dwellings. The re- 
mains of the martyrs who suffered in the circus and 
in those gardens, were here interred together. Hero 
also, but by itself, and with a special monument, was 
laid the venerated body of St. Peter. The follow- 
ing simple but touching inscription was inscribed on 
St. Peter's tomb: — "Anacletus, a priest ordained by 
St. Peter, erected this stone to his memory, and 
made other tombs for the bishops; he himself is 
buried here beside the body of St. Peter." Thus did 
Christianity first take possession of the Vatican. 
During the persecution, this little grotto of the Va- 
tican was at once the tomb, the oratory, and the see 
of the Popes. Hither was the curule chair of Pudens 
transported. St. Peter's successors continued to use 
this chair both through reverence for the Apostle 
and as a symbol of that authority, which they inherit- 
ed from him. There can be no doubt that we owe 
the preservation of this costly relic to the symbolical 
meaning which immediately attached to it. This 
small grotto now contained the germ of that second 
Eome which Christianity afterwards built up and 
magnified. 

In all these catacombs, especially in that of the 
Vatican, St. Peter, both in inscriptions and symbols, 



ROME AND THE POPES. 59 

invariably occupies a prominent place. From the 
first century on, we find a certain figure in many of 
these representations that must evidently have been 
intended for St. Peter. When the Apostles are re- 
presented standing round the Saviour, Peter has a 
chair of honor by His side, or is distinguished by 
some mark of dignity from the others, to indicate 
his pre-eminence. Many of the frescoes represent 
Christ holding in his hand a staff or sceptre, the 
emblem of authority and regal power, and handing 
this sceptre to Peter. In another Peter is represent- 
ed striking water from a rock with this sceptre, as 
did Moses, the leader of God's people of old. One 
of these frescoes bears the simple inscription " Pe- 
trus," showing he was the personage the artist in- 
tended primarily to represent. In another, Chri-st 
appears sitting on a hill and reaching Peter a parch- 
ment roll on which is written " The lord gives the 
law." Peter, with hands muffled in the folds of his 
garment, reverently receives the roll. In another 
representation, he is represented as receiving the 
keys in like manner. In that age the vice-gerents 
of the emperors in the different provinces were thus 
invested with the emblems of their office. The 
Christian artists wished to indicate that Peter was 
made Christ's vicar or vice-gerent upon earth for the 
government of His church. In another place, Christ 
leaves to Peter His mantle, as Elias formerly left his 
to his disciple. This is to signify that the spirit of 
the Saviour descended on Peter, — that Peter is the 
legitimate successor and heir to His power. Again, 
a boat with swelling sails is represented with Paid 



W ROME AND THE POPES. 

a-midships and Peter holding the tiller: at the mast- 
head flies a flag bearing the oft-fouud motto " The 
master makes the law." 

Numberless are the inscriptions, symbols and 
figures, in which Peter's supremacy is thus clearly 
indicated. Never throughout the dark and weary 
days of that trying persecution was this point lost 
sight of. And if the upper city still remained the 
centre and capital of the ancient world, the many 
and far stretching roads that led to it, served 
to bring Christians of all nations from the farthest 
points of the empire to the new Rome below, which 
was already the centre and capital of Christianity. 
Among the twelve thousand inscriptions which have 
been found in the catacombs, we find the names of 
Christians from Gaul, Spain, Africa, Egypt, Syria, 
Greece, and different parts of Asia, so that the cata- 
combs prove at once and give us a beautiful illustra- 
tion of the unity and Catholicity of the Church and 
of the precedence of the "Eternal City." 



XI. 

THE CHRISTIAN REGENERATION OF THE 
CITY —THE PARADOX OE HISTORY. 

"While the seed of Christianity was yet hidden in 
the soil, and was barely noticeable at Rome by the 
number of the martyrs, the city continued to sink 
deeper and deeper into vice. Rome became the 
great sink of heathen iniquity. The moral filth of 
the world streamed from all directions to the city of 
the Ctesars. That golden edifice on the Palatine, the 
imperial palace so luxuriously fitted up and embel- 
lished with all that the world could afford, held forth 
•to view without fear or shame the grossest and most 
abominable crimes. 

It was on such ruins, in such a fearfully desol- 
ated land, St. Peter fixed his see, that see which Avas 
to be the prop of Christendom. It is still the task 
of Christianity to try its strength against evil, and in 
the midst of sin and heresy, sin and heresy to com- 
bat. This heathen Rome, which the Apostle calls 
"Babylon," that is, in the language of Judea, the 
most corrupted of cities, is to be transformed into 
virtuous Christian Rome. 

Here more than anywhere else, did error hold 
that sway over men's minds which is the right of 

61 



62 KOME AND THE POPES. 

truth alone. Men, naturally forced to accept that 
form of worship in which they were brought up as 
an expression and representation of truth, needed 
extraordinary proofs and arguments to be able to 
change their whole system of ideas. How was a 
Roman of that day to conceive that besides Caesar 
whom they named god and lord, another ruled at 
Rome calling himself "Servant of the Servants of 
God," — that, in the prime of life, men should bo 
born again and celebrate with joy their own nativity? 
When coming to Rome, Peter brought the new 
spiritual leaven in the folds of his mantle. He told 
of the Redemption and of the spiritual freedom of 
all, be they slaves or masters. This it was, with the 
grace of God, that infused the new soul into man- 
kind. To this end did Christ communicate to His 
Apostles and disciples the virtue of miracles which, 
above all others, was conspicuous in St. Peter. "With- 
out some supernatural intervention, it were impos- 
sible for pagan Rome to be transformed into a 
Christian city. To effect this transformation, the 
Apostles and their successors proved their divine 
mission by miracles. Indeed, the greatest miracle 
of all was the never failing hecatombs of martyrs, the 
sight of which, from generation to generation, forced 
Christianity upon the notice of the wondering 
Romans. On these martyrs came, and on, and on. At 
length before this untiring perseverance, the granite 
bulwarks of paganism began to yield. The stronghold 
was carried, and the foundations of the new Empire 
firmly laid — an Empire, so immeasurably superior to 
the ancient one in its spirit, its extent, its duration. 



ROME AND THE POPES. Oo 

The city now presents two aspects the decay and 
demolition of ancient Home on the one hand, and 
the building up of the new Rome on the other. 

Built amid the wreck and on the ruins of col- 
lapsing paganism, the new Rome presents the most 
perfect metamorphosis of worship. The change that 
has been wrought is complete and fundamental. 
There was nothing ever like it in the history of the 
world. The old Rome lingers on a while, but there 
is no amalgamation. A most dirtinct line of separa- 
tion runs between the two. As the one disappears, 
the other expands and takes possession of the 
ground. Throughout this change, the original idea 
attaching to Rome as the earth's capital remains un- 
changed. She does continue to be mistress of 
a world, but by the grace of God mistress no 
longer of a heathen, but of a Christian world. The 
sway acquired by ancient Rome was but to fore- 
shadow Rome's supernatural destiny in Christendom. 
The temporal power and wealth she had acquired, 
enabled Rome after her conversion to cast abroad 
among the nations the seeds of Christianity, and to 
leaven with the saving truths of the Gospel, the en- 
tire human family. 

The Christian hierachy is, in all its essentials, of 
divine origin. But now in its accidental develop- 
ment, it adapted itself at once to the system of the 
imperial government. This system was ready to 
hand, practical, efficient, and easily understood by 
all. 

God had now at last come to the relief of those 
who had so long and heroically witnessed for Him 



64 ROME AND THE POPES. 

with their blood. He granted Constantine that 
glorious victox-y over the tyrant Maxentiua which 
opens a new era in the history of Home. The vic- 
torious army entered the city with the sign of the 
cross and the name of Jesus flaunting on their ban- 
ners to the breeze. Senate and people went forth to 
welcome the conquerors. An arch of triumph was 
erected. In the inscription carved thereon, no men- 
tion was made of any heathen god. Constantine at- 
tributed the victory solely to the assistance of the 
One Most High God. On the inside of the arch 
were the words " To the Deliverer of the City — to the 
Peace-giver." For the first time in the eleven hun- 
dred years that Rome had stood, did a conqueror 
dare to forget Jupiter of the Capitol, and omit to 
lay at his feet the laurels that were won. 

It was decreed that a statue should be erected by 
the city to the conqueror. Constantine gave orders 
that in lieu of the sceptre to be placed in its hands, 
a cross be substituted bearing the inscription : — 

"In this saving sign, emblem of real strength, 
" have I delivered your city from thraldom and re- 
" stored glory to the senate and people." 

At length by the grace of God,— the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, did the Christian religion, 
after a long and bloody struggle, the equal of which 
the world has never seen, come off victorious even 
in that very Eome which St. Peter had entered un- 
der such unfavorable circumstances. Those proud 
and haughty patricians prostrated themselves in 
low humility before the cross. It w^as the emblem 



ROME AND THE POPES. G5 

of that freedom, which is freedom indeed, the signal 
that Christ had commenced to reign, that Ho 
triumphs and governs, even as this truth is pro- 
claimed to the world to-day by the granite tongue 
of the great obelisk at St. Peter's. The new era 



XII. 
THE VATICAN. 

"Wiir.x the persecutors were at length vanquished 
by the strong endurance of the persecuted, and the 
new Rome sprung into being, the first impulse to 
her new architectural embellish nent was given by 
that feeling of deep reverence for St. Peter which 
had been transmitted from generation to generation. 
That Vatican hill 'neath which his precious remains 
had lain so long, was now consecrated to his memory 
and selected as the abode of his successor. 

The Vatican is to Christian Heme, what the 
Capitol was to pagan Rome. It is the central, the 
principal point ui the city. This hill derives its 
name from an obscure little town called Vaticum 
that stood there p :ior to the founding of the city. 
It obtained its celebrity as the ground whereon the 
martyrs suffered, wherein their bones were laid, and 
on which now stands the great Basilica of the Prince 
of the Apostles, as well as the palace of his succes- 
sor. By reason of all these circumstances the Vati- 
can is become synonymous with the Holy See, and 
symbolical of that See's supreme authority. 

Constantine, after winning that battle which -was 
fought near the gates. of Piome under the new cross- 
bearing standards, resolved in thanksgiving to the 
Redeemer to build several Christian temples in dif- 
ferent parts of the city. The greatest of all these 

66 



ROME AND THE POPES. G7 

was to be that dedicated to St. Peter. The Vatican 
was chosen for its site. 

St. Sylvester, the first of Peter's followers who 
governed the Church in peace, went in solemn pro- 
cession to the Vatican hill to lay the foundation 
stone of the new temple. The undisturbed founda- 
tions of Nero's circus, a spot on which such a count- 
less number of Christians had shed their blood for 
the faith, served as a foundation for three sides of 
the new Basilica. No place, thought St. Sylvester, 
could be more appropriately chosen for God's wor- 
ship than that hallowed by the blood of so many 
martyrs. Constantine himself was present at this 
solemn ceremony. He was without his crown, and 
desired to cast up the first shovel of earth with his 
ow r n hands. Tradition says that on this occasion he 
laid aside his robe of state, and in honor of the 
twelve Apostles carried twelve hampers of earth on 
his own shoulders. 

The old basilica, with its five naves and hundred 
columns, was much more like the present St. Peter's 
than is generally known. This may be seen by the 
description given of it by St. Paulinus in his letter 
to Pammachius. Before the entrance stood the 
atrium girt all round with pillars. A flight of broad 
marble steps led up to the gate. On the platform 
of these steps the successor of St. Peter was wont to 
receive the successor of Augustus, when the German 
Kaiser went to receive the imperial crown at the 
hands of the Pope and to pray at the tomb of the 
Apostles. In the building of the basilica the " "Wit- 
ness" — the coneessio, or grot in which were the re- 



68 KOME AND THE POPES. 

mains of St. Peter, was the all important point which 
determined the several parts of the entire structure. 
This grotto was divided into two compartments, the 
tipper and the lower. In the latter the body of the 
Saint was laid with great solemnity in an immoveable 
coffin which was after ward encased in a massive rich- 
ly-guilt capsule of bronze. By this capsule is an altar. 
Over the "Confession" at the intersection of the centre- 
lines of the great cross-naves, that is, immediately un- 
der the cross that surmounted the dome, was erected 
the high altar. To the "Confession" a double flight 
of gentle step3 led down. These steps were of 
beautiful white marble, and the floor beneath was 
covered with costly stones. A balustrade of white 
marble on which eighty-nine lamps hung burning 
night and day ran round the "Confessional" or 
"Confessio." 

With this church and with the scarce less beauti- 
ful basilica of the Lateran, began the monumental 
architecture of the new city. The demolition of 
heathen Rome went on daily faster and faster by the 
conversion of pagan monuments into Christian ones. 
The building of the new basilica progressed rapid- 
ly, and at length high in air upon its gable was 
raised the sign of Redemption. As the wondering 
pagans paused beneath the beautiful columnade to 
admire the edifice, they might say to themselves: — 
*'Lo! within that basilica in a rich vault and golden 
shrine, is the highly venerated body of a Jewish 
fisherman, who from his lake of Galilee came to 
Rome at the time of Claudius or Nero." The cir- 
cus was torn down. Its vast ruins which had sup- 



EOME AND THE POPES. 69 

plied stone for the basilica presented now the dreary 
aspect of a quarry. By the Christians this building 
of the basilica on, and of, the ruins of the heathen 
circus was interpreted the victory of the Christian 
faith over pagan worship. 



xin 

THE BRONZE STATUE OF ST. PETER. 

There is at St. Peter's a very ancient bronze 
statue of the Apostle in which he is represented in 
a sitting posture with his right hand raised in the 
act of blessing, and holding the typical keys in his 
left. 

This statue deserves a brief notice on account of 
its very singular history. It occupies at present a 
very conspicuous place in the basilica, but formerly 
stood in a little chapel hard by. Though another 
very ancient statue of St. Peter was in Rome, and 
indeed is there still, the one we speak of, engrossed 
all the veneration of the Romans. It was looked 
upon as yielding a special protection to them and to 
their city. To this, they invariably had recourse in 
their troubles. As devotion to this statue increased, 
it was thought proper to give it a prominent and 
roomly site in the great church itself. There it has 
been for centuries, and from the kisses bestowed on 
it by the millions of pilgrims that visit St. Peter's, 
the metal of the forward foot is noticeably worn 
away. 

According to reliable documents still preserved 
at the Vatican, Pope Leo the Great, had this statue 
cast on his return to Rome after his interview with 
Attila. Tradition clothes that historic event with 

70 



HOME AND THE TOPES. * 71 

its own imagery. The sight of the Venerable Leo 
coming as mediator for the city made, it is said, a 
deep impression on the barbarian. But, it is added, 
it was not Leo alone he saw before him. Behind 
the imploring Pope, Attila beheld a supernatural 
personage in the form of a majestic venerable and 
elderly man, clad in episcopal robes, who threatened 
him with death if he denied the petitioner's request. 
Tradition says it was St. Peter who thus appeared to 
save and succor the city in its need. 

"Whatever degree of importance we may attach 
to this tradition, it is at any rate historically true 
that Attila, who had till then without fear or ruth 
scattered devastation 'round him by fire and sword, 
turned suddenly back after this interview with Leo, 
abandoned his declared purpose of going to Rome, 
and hastened to return to Pannonia. In Leo's own 
time the Romans began to keep the sixth of June — the 
day of his interview with the Hun as a festival in 
honor of their delivery. It is thought that in thanks- 
giving for the protection afforded on that occasion 
to the city by St. Peter, Leo had the statue of Jupi- 
ter wdiich had long stood in the Capitol, recast into 
one of the Apostle, as the guardian of Rome. Sev- 
eral antiquarians are indeed of opinion that the 
present statue is the very statue of Jupiter itself, 
merely with other head and hands. The chief reason 
assigned is that this one does not even remotely re- 
semble any other statue of the Saint. This is thrown 
up to us as a matter of reproach. But even sup- 
posing it were so, we can see nothing wrong in the 
matter. Let no change at all be made, could not the 



72 HOME AXD THE POPES." 

statue of Jupiter be blessed and consecrated to St. 
Peter just as pagan temples were converted into 
Christian ones? But it is all false. If the old statue 
merely got, as is suggested, a new head and new 
arms, there certainly should remain some sign of the 
jointure. Not a trace of anything of the kind how- 
ever is to be found. Of the old Jupiter statue then 
nothing now remains but the metal moulded anew 
into that we have of St. Peter. The statue is 
in a sitting posture on a marble chair, and the 
ground on which it rests is no^\ covered with green 
porphyry slabs. In the ninth century this ground or 
upper part of the pedestal was covered with plates 
of gold bearing an inscription in Greek. Mabillon 
recovered the inscription and published it from a 
valuable manuscript of Roman Epigraphy and Topo- 
graphy found in the library of Einsiedeln. The copy 
of this inscription taken by the anonymous compiler 
of the Einsiedeln Code is very faulty. The follow- 
ing is an attempt at a translation: — 

" God the Word beholds on gold 

The Rock divinely hewn : 

Firm on this, I falter not." 
There is a great deal about this monument worth 
remarking. There it stands, made of the identical 
brass that composed the Jupiter of the Capitol. 
Jupiter was the symbol of warlike Rome, ruling the 
world by the terror of his arms. The Fisherman of 
Galilee ruling the regenerated world by the power 
of faith and love, is the emblem of Christian Rome. 
On the one, was the haughty toga, on the other are 
priestly vestments. Jupiter grasped the thunder- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 73 

bolt, Peter's hand is raised in the act to bless. "We 
may also notice the circumstances under which the 
modern statue was erected. The fierce Attila, the 
scourge of mankind, was softened and turned back 
to Pannonia by Pope Leo. One of Leo's successors, 
five hundred years later, is seen sending the crown 
which he has blessed to Attila's Christian successor. 
That statue of Peter is subsequently venerated by all 
nations. The conquerors Belisarius and Totila re- 
spect it, and Charlemagne bows down beneath that 
hand lifted to bless. Pilgrims from the most distant 
parts of Christendom, kings and queens as Avell as 
peasants, all came to venerate and devoutly kiss the 
statue of him who has taken the place of Jove in the 
Christian Capitol. The statue had its enemies also. 
It is to this, Leo the Iconoclast alludes in his letter 
to Gregory II: — "I will send to Kome also and have 
the bronze statue of the Apostle Peter pulled down." 
To which the Pope replies: "If you send troops to 
Rome to tear down the statue of St. Peter, we would 
have you bear in mind that we shall hold ourselves 
guiltless of the blood that ma}' be shed on the oc- 
casion: be it upon your head." Then came the 
Lombards who for two hundred years menaced the 
city and statue of the Apostle, and the thousand 
petty rulers that rose and fell in quick succession in 
Italy. This statue was particularly obnoxious to all 
those who hated the Christian name and Christian 
Rome. Thus we see the Statue like the Holy See 
always had its enemies as well as worshippers. 



XIV. 

THE CITY OF THE C/ESARS BECOME THE 
CITY OF THE POPES. 

The particular motive which induced Constantine 
to give up Rome as the capital of the empire and 
transport his court to Byzantium has never trans- 
pired. No historian informs us what it was. The 
feeling at the time grew general that the sway of 
the Csesars in Rome had come to an end, and per- 
haps this, and the knowledge Constantine had that 
the spiritual empire whose prince he had recognized 
in Pope Sylvester, should far outstretch and over- 
shadow the temporal, moved him to the step. At 
any rate, the finger of God is evidently discernible 
in the event. 

Henceforward the Popes are the only persons 
who appear to watch over the well-being of Rome. 
All that the successors of Constantine did for the 
city, was to rob her of her monuments. Constantine 
called his capital on the Bosphorus " New Rome," 
and had transported thither any quantity of metal 
and marble statues, with works of art of all descrip- 
tion. His object was to make his " New Rome" as 
like the old one as possible, and, if possible, to make 
it outrival her in beauty and magnificence. Accord- 
ing! v, at immense trouble and expense, he had 
among other things the Palladium transported 

74 



ROME AND THE POrES. 75 

thither, together with a beautiful monolythc column 
of porphyry a hundred feet in length, which ho sot 
up in the Byzantine forum. 

Henceforth we see the Christian element entirely 
prevail at Rome. Her Palladium are the bones of 
the Apostles and martyrs which repose in the Vati- 
can and Callistine catacombs. Here also lie the re- 
mains of all St. Peter's successors, encircled with a 
halo of glory derived from their many virtues and 
the sanctity of their lives, such as no other dynasty 
on earth can boast. 

Thus the Popes are now the only ones who main- 
tain the majesty of the city. The city of the Caesars 
is a wreck. It is being levelled by the successors of 
Augustus. The Popes alone arrest the work of ruin. 
They adopt into the "Eternal City' 1 of St. Peter, the 
monuments of ancient Roman art and splendor. A 
word now on a few of these monuments. 

The wooden temple of Jupiter on the Capitol is 
called to-day the "Altar of Heaven," Ara Cccli. It 
is consecrated to t'ie divine child descending from 
heaven, and born into the world on that night of 
grace and good- will to men. On the Feast of the 
Nativity the Saviour-Child is here represented in a 
crypt with a statue of Augustus on one side, and a 
statue of the Sybil on the other, in remembrance 
of a vision which Augustus is said to have had in 
that place of a god-like child with whom he, the 
world's conqueror, as announced by the Sybil, should 
one day share his empire. The oracle is fulfilled. 
The Capitol, the symbol of an all-devouring ambition 
and hist of power that lorded it ruthlessly over the 



76 ROME AND THE POPES. 

lieathen world, is now, in the form of an infant, be- 
come the emblem of all that is tender and loveable, 
upon earth, bringing tidings of salvation and free- 
dom to the nations. The frowning majesty of the 
ancient Capitol is exchanged for the whining sweet-, 
ness of the new-born Child, the Saviour. The priests 
of the Capitol are now the lowly sons of St. Francis, 
who minister in the Ara Coeli, and whose voice bear- 
ing tidings of deliverance to the nations, is heard 
beyond the utmost limits of the ancient empire. 

This regeneration, however, of the memorable 
spots and monuments of the ancient city, is not 
without its exceptions. The Palatine whereon Ko- 
muhis first pitched his hut, and which was after- 
wards defiled by the orgies of Nero, has so far, it 
would seem, resisted all renovation. Nothing since 
would thrive there. In the course of time, many at- 
temps were made to settle it; dwellings, convents, 
monasteries, palaces, were put up. But it was only 
to heap ruins on ruins, and make the place look 
more blighted than before. Nature in its wildest 
state of thorn, briar, and thistle, has taken posses- 
sion of those grounds of folly and luxury. Here and 
there in the wild wilderness, you may observe a 
patch of lettuce or of vines. But they are like oases 
in the dreary waste of this rank and noxious vege- 
tation. For a long period the ruins of the Palatine 
served as a quarry for the building of palaces and 
churches in the city. At the very foot of the hill, 
there is now a small monastery of the Seraphic St. 
Bonaventure, as if to contrast forcibly the blessed 
poverty of Christianity with the most extravagant 



KOME AND THE POPES. 77 

luxury the world ever witnessed. In the garden of 
this cloister is seen the only generous produce of 
this soil — a luxuriant palm. All else on the Palatine 
is a wild waste of ruin and desolation. Of this hill, 
nothing remains to the modern world but the word 
"palace," which, derived from the magnificent dwell- 
ings that once stood on the Palatine, has passed into 
all the languages of Europe. 

The famous Pantheon met a better fate. The 
temple of all the gods is the only great monument 
of pagan Rome, that now exists hi a state of com- 
plete preservation. Here it was, in this Roman tem- 
ple of all gods, that sin and error held most sway. 
It was not thundering Jove alone who was here en- 
throned, nor the austere Juno, as conceived by the 
early Romans, but also Venus and Pandemos. "When 
Rome in the zenith of her power erected this tem- 
ple, she betrayed a falling off from her early vir- 
tue, and made a misuse of her noble gifts. The 
Pantheon was the brand of her degeneracy. That 
city, which had attained a pitch of greatness and 
glory such as the world had never seen, which was 
unique in the world's history, and in every way cal- 
culated to produce on the nations, an impression of 
her high and solemn majesty, mistook her call- 
ing and exhibited thenceforward a picture of cor- 
ruption and iniquity that was never witnessed since 
the flood, and scarce surpassed by the crimes of an- 
cient Babylon. This Pantheon, the symbol of Rome's 
consecration of herself to every vice and error, after 
lying a ruin for several centuries, was finally de- 
dicated to the one true God in honor of all the 



78 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Christian martyrs, and is now the symbol of the 
city's consecration to the Most High. On the high 
altar, Mary is enthroned as queen of martyrs. The 
Pantheon is thus sanctified to-day, and is filled with 
the majesty of God and the glory of His saints. Its 
wonderful architecture obtained its fullest expres- 
sion, and was converted to the noblest use, when a 
copy of the whole structure with its wonderous dome, 
was raised in mid air upon St. Peter's, the world's 
cathedral. On the frieze running round the whole 
circiamference, is the following inscription in mosaic: 
"Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram oedijkabo ccclesiam 
meam, et tibi dabo claves regni coelorum." The letters 
are six feet in length. 

Where stood the baths of Domiti..n, is now the 
Church of Sts. Sylvester and Martin. It was built 
by Pope Sylvester, whose name it bears. Here he 
had long dwelt with a priest named Equitius prior 
to his flight to the solitary hill "Monte Soracte" in 
the Sabine swamp. It was in this church the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter approved, in 326, the decisions of 
the council of Nice, respecting the Divinity of Christ, 
reverently citing the noble words of St. Peter "Thou 
art Christ, the son of the living God." There, is also 
to be seen the remains of a mosaic representation 
of the Mother of G od, that was put up by Pope Syl- 
vester in honor of Mary "the Joy of Christians"— 
gaudium Christianorum — on the cessation of the per- 
secution. 

As time wore on, the transformation of the hea- 
then into the Christian city progressed. It was now 
the capital of a new empire, — the empire of Christen- 



EOME AND THE POPES. 79 

dom. The general face of things continued to alter 
more and more, in accordance with this high des- 
tiny. Peter, not Caesar, rules at Rome, and, as C;e- 
sar once was the all-in-all in Rome, so is Peter now. 
His church is the loftiest and the grandest in Chris- 
tendom. The city is but that Church's atrium, and 
the Pope is the life and soul of Church and city. 



XV. 

HOME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN 
WORLD. 

We cannot exaggerate the historic importance of 
the transformation that went on at this period. The 
old collapsing heathen city was silently transformed 
into the capital of the vigorous and conquest-bent 
empire of Christianity. When the deluge of north- 
ern barbarism rolled down upon Europe at the fall 
of the Western empire, overwhelming in its wild 
rush the other cities and towns of Europe, merging 
them all in its turbid waters and quenching all the 
lights of literature and civilization, Rome, like a 
second Ararat, proudly topped the flood and con- 
tinued to afford a resting place to affrighted science 
and civilization. Herein was unquestionably the 
finger of God. Rome purified in the blood of her 
martyrs, and refreshed by drinking at the pure 
sources of faith, was designed by God to afford dur- 
ing this awful period, a firm and safe footing to St. 
Peter's successor. 

In Christ's kingdom upon earth, the Pope holds 
the place of his divine Master. As Christ is king and 
ruler, the Pope is king and ruler. Christ's kingdom 
is not indeed of this world. But then, it is in this 
world, and so its chief must needs have a dwelling 
place on earth whence he may govern that kingdom 

80 



ROME AND THE POPES. 81 

without interference. Christ appointed Peter His 
vice-gerent. As chief of Christ's flock, Peter fixed 
his see in Rome. Pome thus became the first see of 
the Christian world. Not through any merits of her 
own, does Pome hold this precedence. Her pre- 
eminence is due solely to the merits, or rather to the 
divine election, of him who was her first bishop. 
This precedence of Rome then is really a personal 
thing. It is an honor attaching to the Primate or 
chief bishop of the Church. Though personal how- 
ever in that sense, it is not given for the individual's 
sake. It was conferred on Peter for the good of the 
entire Church, and thus also the precedence that 
Rome enjoys as the See of Peter, was given her not 
for her sake alone, but for that of all Christendom. 
It should not, of course, be thought that Rome was 
made the capital of Christendom because she was 
the chief city of the empire. To Peter, and Peter 
alone, she owes her supremacy, and through Peter 
she aims as of old, but in a different manner, as also 
indeed for a different end, to subdue all the nations 
of the earth. This, her destiny through Peter, is 
one she could not receive from a vote in the forum, 
a placet of the senate, or the fiat of a Caesar. St. 
Peter's choice of Rome under the divine guidance, his 
ministry and his death in that city, are the events 
which determined the future of Rome. From these 
events she has received her high privileges and 
sublime destiny. She is the centre, — the capital of 
the whole Catholic world, and to this high destiny of 
Rome, all local interests whatsoever must ever re- 
main subordinate. 
6 



82 ROME AND THE POPES. 

In all its essential elements, the hierarchy was 
established by Christ, or formed at His immediate 
bidding. With Rome for a centre this hierarchy 
■went at once into full working order. The practical 
wisdom of the Romans for administration, soon de- 
veloped the existing groundwork into a complete and 
beautiful system. The empire of the Ciesars, as in 
ail else, so in this, was but a preparation for the em- 
pire of Peter. The general organization and most 
of the details of the former, suited the latter, and 
were, accordingly, adopted. Cardinals and bishops 
form the Senate of Peter. The provinces send their 
bishops and archbishops to the States-Council, — the 
synods and general councils: vice-gerents in pro- 
vinces, or portions of provinces, are the patriarchs 
and archbishops. Monasteries and convents may be 
compared to the old colonies that became, wherever 
they were established, so many centers of material 
and intellectual improvement. The ambassadors of 
Peter's successor go forth in all directions. They 
pass far beyond the extremities of the old imperial 
roads, bearing embassies of the divine truth,— holi- 
ness of life and pure worship. The traces of the old 
imperial regime were still everywhere visible, and, 
through the channels which the old iron sway had 
cut into society, now flowed forth the waters of life 
to the provinces — to the world— from Rome. 

Peter's ambassadors were sent to all the nations 
of the earth, and, to all the nations of the earth, 
they found their way. Rome's spiritual sway over 
mankind was infinitely more complete than ever was 
the material sway of the Ciesars. Peoples and tribes 



ROME AND THE POPES. 83 

who had never heard of Rome before, now learned 
her name and her history, because thence had come 
their first spiritual fathers. Even in those places 
where the name of Rome had resounded in men's 
ears for centimes, the word now gained in majesty 
and significance. For centuries this "Roma" has 
been the mother and governess of the nations. They 
thronged round her to gather the pure words of life 
from her lips. She treasured up for them, besides, acd 
dealt out with unsparing hand all that remained of 
ancient literature and civilization. By means of these 
charitable institutions of the Church, — the religious 
orders, — the successor of St. Peter could act the good 
Samaritan by Europe. He was enabled to play tho 
part of the generous philanthropist who, mid the 
horrid scenes of a city devoted to pillage and de- 
struction, picks up a helpless child, and acts by it as 
a father. 

The nations of Christendom, under the Christian 
law given them by Papal Rome, of faith, hope and 
charity, were formed to godliness and incited to 
strive after the Christian ideal in their social rela- 
tions. In return for the good he wrought, the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter was looked up to by all Christen- 
dom with filial and heartfelt affection. 



XVI. 

THE PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 

The local church of the city of Rome was pos- 
sessed of considerable ecclesiastical property, long 
before she was endowed by Constantine. The re- 
venues of this property were employed for the re- 
pairing and building of churches, furnishing the al- 
tar, and the support of the clergy and the poor. 
Not the wants of Rome alone were thought of. The 
Romans frequently sent assistance to other churches 
in Italy, Greece, Asia-Minor and Palestine. This 
revenue all passed through the Pope's hands. It 
went by the name of the "Patrimony of St. Peter," 
so that through these charitable works, the Pope, as 
St. Ignatius who was martyred A. D. 106, expresses it, 
seemed to hold "a presidency of charity," and this, 
not only as regards Rome, but also all other 
churches. 

With regard to charitable foundations and insti- 
tutions, the seed sown at Romo by the Apostle was 
not fruitless. The Romans readily comprehended 
that love of our neighbor is a proof, and a prop of 
that charity, without which there is no salvation, as 
well as a bond of union among the faithful. The 
rich were taught, that to be saved, they must be 
charitable; that their bounty to the poor would be 
the measure of their glory. As Peter wrote to the 

84 



ROME AND THE POPES. 85 

faithful of Asia-Minor, and admonished them to love 
each other with a pure heart, to be compassionate, 
brotherly, kind and generous; so did he teach his 
Christians at Koine to practice that charity, by which 
every one should know they were Christ's disciples. 
The same doctrine is inculcated by Peter's succes- 
sors. St. Clement writes : — "Who can estimate the 
value of charity? who can measure the height to 
which, through union with God, it elevates man ?" 
This charitable spirit of the Romans had, at a very 
early day, put the Church in possession of consider- 
able means,— the "patrimony of Peter," — which, 
even in a worldly point of view, gave the see of 
Rome extraordinary importance. It acquired stabil- 
ity thereby, and the Pope, that position of freedom 
and independence so necessary in his case. Through 
the wealth at his disposal, in pure cash, vessels of 
gold and silver, and real estate, he commanded an 
influence not to be dispised. Add to this, the well- 
ordered graduating hierarchy, by which the Pope's 
influence was extended through and through the 
Church, and the fact that the decrees of synods and 
councils had to be submitted for his approbation, 
and it will be easy to understand what the supreme 
jurisdiction of the see of Peter meant even in those 
early and troublous times. Alexander Severus de- 
cided a law-suit, respecting a piece of property, in 
favor of the Roman Church. He viewed her as a 
standing corporate body, and takes occasion to 
praise her organization, especially in what regards 
the election of bishops. This, he thinks, were well 
worthy of imitation in electing officers for the im- 



86 HOME AND THE POPES. 

perial administration. The emperor Aurelian, though 
an enemy and persecutor of the Church, recognized 
the supremacy of the Pope over all the Christians 
of the empire. The catacombs were not the only 
places where the Christians assembled. They had 
many houses in the city wherein they ventured to 
meet, as the fury of persecution lulled. These houses 
were sometimes richly furnished, and generally pos- 
sessed a great many silver lamps. When the per- 
secution of Diocletian broke out, there were forty 
such houses in the city, although only the small 
space of thirty years had elapsed since that under 
Aurelian had ceased. 

By an edict of Constantine, the right of the 
Church as a corporate body was formally recognized. 
Thenceforward donations of real estate to the Holy 
See came not only from Rome and the immediate 
environs, but also from distant parts of Italy, from 
Sicily, Corsica, Gaul, Syria, Asia-Minor and Egypt. 
The "Patrimony of St. Peter" was thus increased, and 
increased for the benefit of the entire world. In the 
desolation and distress, which accompanied the disso- 
lution ofthe Western empire, not only had the Popes 
on many occasions, to provide for the needs of distant 
churches, but often for the wants of a whole pro- 
vince. Borne itself was a model to all other cities 
and churches as regards the establishment of chari- 
table institutions. She provided hospitals for the 
sick, and homes for the aged poor, the widow, and 
the orphan. By this means, the Pope acquired al- 
most complete independence of the now spent and 
tottering regime of the old empire, even before his 



ROME AND THE POPES. 87 

more perfect and sovereign independence was secured 
for the good of Christendom by the acquisition of 
the States of the Church. 

Regarding the administration of this heritage of 
St. Peter, the reign of Gregory the Great, merits 
some particular notice. Possessing a good practical 
knowledge of agriculture, he introduced everywhere 
through his dominions the best systems of tillage 
and farming that were then known, and showed the 
inhabitants how to increase the produce of their 
lands. Nothing escaped his notice. Not the small- 
est details of government does this truly great man 
deem beneath his attention. One sees that in these 
seeming trifles, as in the weightiest of his affairs, 
Gregory is actuated solely by his strong love of 
justice and the all embracing charity of his noble 
soul. To the peasantry, in particular, who, when 
just rescued from the claws of the Byzantine taxa- 
tion, fell into the hands of the plundering conquer- 
ors of the empire, Gregory shows himself a lenient 
and kind ruler. He knows also how to protect his 
own rights against the encroachments of the violent 
princes of his time. Of his own ease and comfort, 
he took little thought. It could be said of Gregory 
that he was as poor as a monk, and as rich as a king. 
His income was great, and with it he was liberal to 
all needs save his own. He is often astonished him- 
self at the wonderful bounty of God in providing the 
supplies for his liberality, and can scarce comprehend 
how it is the Church of Eome, that had to suffer her 
own share in the general distress, can, nevertheless, 
contribute so much towards the support of the 



88 KOME AND THE POPES. 

clergy, the convents, the poor and the infirm, as 
also to provide for many who had been stripped 
of their all by the devastating armies. Besides all 
this, Rome had to furnish heavy contributions on 
several occasions to stay the fury of the victorious 
Lombards 

The states of the Church many a time aroused 
the jealousy and the avarice of the barbarians who 
commanded in Northern Italy. In all their attempts 
however at seizure and annexation, they strove, then 
as now, to justify by some title or other their acts of 
lawless violence and plunder. 



XVII. 

THE SUCCESSOR OF ST. PETER PROTECTOR 
OF THE CITY AGAINST THE BYZANTINE 
EMPEROR AND THE SUBALPINE BAR- 
BARIANS. 

The Eastern emperors through ambition and 
avarice, and the barbarians of Northern Italy, 
through mere lust of plunder and conquest, sorely 
harassed Rome for the next two centuries. The Lom- 
bards moved again and again upon the city. It was 
saved on such occasions, not by the distant emperor 
or his powerless exarchate, but. invariably by the in- 
fluence or mediation of the Popes. The Lombards, 
half-heathen Arians, thought that by exterminating 
the Roman Church, they could establish and insure 
their own sway over the entire of Italy. They fan- 
cied that the Popes favored the rule and policy of 
Constantinople, and were, consequently, hostile to 
themselves. On the other hand the Greek emperors 
oppressed the bishops of Rome because the latter 
would not openly espouse the imperial policy. Y\Tien 
the Popes took it on themselves to do for the city or 
the province, what the exarchate either through care- 
lessness would not, or through inability could not 
effect, they were invariably accused of trespassing on 
the emperor's rights. The successors of Constan- 

89 



90 KOME AND THE POPES. 

tine must have begun to feel at this period, that God 
had, in the successors of St. Peter, raised up that 
strong arm, which, with firm grasp, was soon to take 
the helm of Italian and Roman affairs out of their 
own feeble hands. Men's minds were all turning to 
Rome not only as the source of pure faith and the 
fount of science, but also the model of society. It 
was impossible that such a city thus looked up to, 
could long remain the provincial town of a distant, 
effete and dissolute empire. 

From Gregory the Great to Stephen III., who 
called i he Franks to his assistance into Italy, a 
period of nearly one hundred and fifty years inter- 
vened. It was a period of fearful anarchy through- 
out all Italy, and its history is bxat very imperfectly 
known. The Eastern emperor continued to maintain 
some footing in the country, but indeed little more. 
His feeble rule was now limited to a portion of the 
coast near Ancona, aud the duchies of Rome and 
of Naples. The kingdom of the Lombards which 
occupied nearly the whole of Italy, and was divided 
from North to South into two parts that were but 
loosely connected with each other, had no natural 
frontiers, nor indeed any very settled ones of any 
kind. Italy thus became the theatre of the continual 
wars waged by the semi-barbarous Lombards. She 
suffered all the horrors of the cruelty and devasta- 
tion in which that fierce race seemed delighted to 
indulge. In one of the later wars, the Lombards, 
baffled in their efforts to get possession of the city, 
wasted the whole surrounding country in such a 
frightful manner, that from that terrible destruction 



EOME AND THE POPES. 91 

ensued the irreclaimable condition of those unhealthy- 
desolate marshes of the Roman Campagna. 

Rome, Ravenna, and Pavia were now the prin- 
cipal cities in Italy. Pavia was the Lombard capi- 
tal; Ravenna was the seat of the Greek exarch. He 
ruled as a military despot. By his exactions, he 
kept the inhabitants in a state of chronic rebellion. 
A Greek commandant was still maintained in Rome, 
but his command was in reality but a nominal one. 

Prom the beginning of the eighth century a desire 
for self-government began to agitate the Italians, 
especially those who were still subjects of the em- 
peror. It was easy to see that the Byzantine rule in 
Italy was near its end. The Popes were often the 
only ones who acknowledged the actual government 
of the emperor. But the Popes were also in the 
eyes of the Italians the representatives, as well as 
the upholders of the old commonwealth. The Ita- 
lians loved to think Rome was still the old republic. 
The idea was perhaps as faint as it was unreal, but 
such as it was, it fired Italian souls a little. In Rome 
the "Republic" would seem to mean at one time the 
neighboring territory that had not been seized by 
the Lombards, at another, the Greek exarchate with 
its five cities. The Po£>es looked on themselves and 
acted, as the defenders and protectors of the Roman 
commonwealth. What chiefly contributed to the 
great political power which the successors of St. Pe- 
ter exercised at this period was the extraordinary 
religious veneration in which they were held by those 
barbarian tribes lately converted to Christianity, es- 
pecially the Franks. This feeling was also very 



92 KOME AXD THE POPES. 

lively among the old-Italians, descendants "of the 
early Christians. To this, must be added the large 
income of the " Patrimony" at their disposal. "With 
no itching hands or selfish spirit was this " patri- 
mony" liberally expended for the benefit of the 
people. Thus all Italians or " Romans" came to look 
on the successor of Peter as their natural rider, as 
their defender and their protector against all comers. 
Nevertheless the Pope himself remained under nom- 
inal subjection to a distant sovereign power. He 
was, however, notwithstanding this fact, what Caesar 
never could have been to all those who dwelt in the 
territory of the fancied "Roman Republic." Indeed, 
the emperors seemed now bent on treating their Ital- 
ian possessions as a retreating army would a province 
they were compelled to abandon. All that could be 
done to strip and exasperate the inhabitants, was dene. 
Meantime the Pope's conduct towards both sides, — 
the oppressed and the oppressors, — was ever soothing 
and conciliating. Thus the successor of St. Peter, 
through all change and circumstance, was becoming 
every year more fondly dear to the Italian people 
and twining himself more closely with their affec- 
tions and aspirations. He thereby all the more 
securely assured himself of that independence, 
which as head of the Church he must necessarily 
possess. 

But in that long and troublous period that 
elapsed between the arrival of the Lombards and 
the final attainment of independent sovereign 
authority by the Popes, the ideal " Republic" of the 



EOME AND THE POPES. 



Bomans was more than once in extreme danger of 
being crushed to powder as between two mill- 
stones, by the Byzantine power on the one side, and 
the Lombards on the other. 



XVIII. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE POPE'S POLITICAL 
POSITION INTO INDEPENDENT SOVER- 
EIGNITY. 

The eighth century brought with it events which 
soon led to a crisis in the affairs of Italy. After the 
death of Justinian II., his murderer, Philippikus 
Bardanes, ascended the throne of Constantinople. 
It was customary for the Greek emperor at his ac- 
cession, to send the Pope his confession of faith. 
Philippikus sent his, but it was openly monothelisti- 
cal. It was, of course, rejected by the Pope and 
Roman clergy. The people were incensed; they 
caused large paintings of the six general councils to 
be made and had them hung round the walls of St. 
Peter's. This was intended as a political demonstra- 
tion against the heretical emperor. The whole pop- 
ulace rose up against him. The nobility, the army, 
and the different guilds of the city, unanimously re- 
solved to shake off his yoke. The people declared 
they would never acknowledge the new vice-gerent 
sent to Rome by the heretical emperor. A tumult 
ensued on the Via Sacra. A number of the Roman 
clergy went forth and separated the combatants. 
But the disturbance continued, and notwithstanding 
the efforts of Pope and clergy, this anarchical con- 
dition of affairs lasted upwards of a year and a half. 

94 



EOME AND THE POPES. 95 

The revolt was not confined to the city alone. It 
spread far and wide through the Greek dominions. 
In the year 715, Pope Constantine died. He was a 
worthy predecessor of the great men that succeeded 
him in the chair of Peter, Gregory II., Gregory III. 
and Zacbary. 

As Gregory the Great had the faith borne to the 
distant country of the Anglo-Saxons, England, so 
did Gregory II. draw Germany, then covered with 
wood and swamp, out of the darkness of paganism, 
to the light of faith and civilization. In November 
723, he raised St. Boniface to the episcopal dignity 
in Germany. These were gloomy days for Europe. 
Within, lawlessness, strife and bloodshed every- 
where; while without, she was attacked on all sides, 
by the deadliest foes of Christianity, the Mussul- 
mans. These were already masters of Spain and 
Portugal. They were fast moving upon France. 
Their fleets scoured the Mediterranean. Italy and 
Rome were threatened from the sea, and the inhabi- 
tants of the entire Peninsula watched in feverish 
anxiety the movements of the dreaded foe. Leo the 
Isaurian reigned on the Bosphorus. Leo was a mere 
military upstart, a man of no culture, with manners 
rude and coarse. He was a bold and able warrior, 
but had no taste whatever for the arts of peace. 
When emperor, he was seized with the Greek mania 
for theological disputes, and entered upon the dis- 
cussion of matters of which he absolutely knew no- 
thing at all. Besides, his mind was wholly unfit for 
such speculative argumentation. But it was on this 
very account, that his meddling in such matters was 



96 ROME AND THE POPES. 

all the more dangerous. In the year 876, Leo pub* 
lished an edict requiring that pictures and statues. 
be forthwith removed from all the Christian churches 
of the empire. At this a storm of revolt burst over 
the length and breadth of his dominions. In many 
places the minions of the emperor, disregarding the 
feelings of the populace, undertook, conjointly vrith 
the heretics, to carry out the prescriptions of the 
edict. Churches were broken open, and the streets 
were strewed with the fragments of torn paintings 
and broken-up statues and mosaics. Leo sent his 
edict to Rome as well as elsewhere. It called forth 
from Gregory a dogmatical document, wherein he 
tells the emperor it does not belong to him to give 
commands in matters of faith, nor is he despotically 
going to do away with a venerable usage. Leo 
threatened to depose the Pope. At this the citizens 
of Eome and the whole population of the Pentapolis, 
the Venetians and the Calabrians, rose up as one 
man, and declared their intention to maintain the 
Pope against the emperor by force of arms. Leo 
sent a fleet to Eome. But it was basely arranged 
that before they should enter the Tiber, Gregory 
was to be despatched by assasins. The plot was de- 
feated by the sudden illness of Spat-harms Morinus, 
one of the wretches hired for the purpose. The en- 
raged mob fell upon the other conspirators and cut 
them to pieces. Hearing of this, the exarch resolved 
to march an army upon Rome. But the entire Pen- 
tapolis was up in arms against the Greek. The Lom- 
bard settlers in Tuscany declared likewise for the 
Pope and seized the Salarian bridge. The Greeks 



ROME AND THE POPES. 97 

\vere obliged to return, and so determined had the 
Italians become in the Pope's cause against the em- 
peror, that they actually resolved to choose an em- 
peror of their own, raise an army and march against 
Constantinople. The little success they had had, 
aroused the national spirit and made the men of the 
ideal "Republic" of the eighth century, fancy they 
were the stern old Romans of a thousand years ago. 
But the re-establishment of the empire in the West 
was a chimera. Gregory thus far had opposed the 
rebels, and continued to do so now. But with all 
his influence, he could not prevent the Romans de- 
claring their city free from all allegiance to the em- 
peror of Constantinople. Some say the Romans on 
this occasion proclaimed the city and its deiiendent 
territory a Republic, with the Pope at the head of 
the administration. This, however, we cannot vouch 
for. 

The Pope used all his influence to appease the 
people. He exhorted them not to cut loose from the 
imperial government. He addressed letters to Leo 
full of paternal advice, but at the same time in a 
tone of lofty boldness and wholesome severity. "We 
must address you," he says, in one of them, "in a 
manner rather rude and unpolished, for you are rude 
and unpolished yourself." Then follows an explana- 
tion of the Catholic veneration of holy pictures, 
simple enough for a child to understand. He adds 
that the Italians showed that they did not think Leo's 
own statues and pictures worthy of their reverence, 
by trampling them under foot. It is on this occasion 
he mentions that statue of St. Peter of which we 
7 



98 HOME AND THE POrES. 

spoke in the XIII. chapter. In a second letter 
Gregory enters at some length upon the question of 
the two powers, the spiritual and the temporal, the 
palace, as he calls it, and the Church. He points out 
the limits to the authority of each. The temporal 
prince, he says, in what regards the well-being of 
society can enforce his commands with the dungeon 
and the sword. The spiritual chief or first bishop 
employs no mater'al force, but punishes sinning 
souls with ecclesiastical censures, to the end that 
they may thereby be drawn from death to life in 
God. These documents are replete with noble and 
profound conceptions, and distinctly indicate the re- 
lations of Pope and Kaiser, of Church and State. 
This letter of Gregory's drew from the rough soldier 
a savage reply, wherein he says: — "I am Caesar, and 
I am priest:" that is, I am State and Church, too. In 
the course of his answer to this, the Pope tells him: 
" Thy intellect and thy reasoning is that of a blunt 
unlettered soldier. Now, don't venture with such, 
upon an analysis of the dogmas of faith." 

And thus was Italy lost forever to the imperial 
crown. True, several battles were afterwards fought 
between the Greek forces and the Lombards. In 
these wars the Pope was repeatedly called on for as- 
sistance and advice by the Greek commanders. But 
as a general thing, Eome took little part in these 
struggles. Though the city was still nominally under 
the emperor, the Romans practically disclaimed his 
rule. At length, Constantinople was force I to re- 
linquish her hold on every foot of Italian soil. From 
within and from without, the Greek rule was equal- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 99 

ly attacked. Everything showed that a crisis in the 
political affairs of Italy was imminent. Some great 
change was inevitable. By degrees the Pope began 
to be regarded not only as the governor of Kome, 
but also of the whole Pentapolis. He was in fact 
looked up to as their chief by all those Italians in 
whatever part of Italy, who held to the ideal Repub- 
lic. The next war of the Lombards hastened the 
march of events. Luitprand, one of the ablest of 
the Lombard kings, beleaguered and took Ravenna, 
the capital of the Byzantine government in Italy. 
He also became master of many of the towns and 
strongholds of Aemilia and the Pentapolis, and seized 
on Narni and Sutri in the Roman duchy. He prepared 
to march on Rome, but the Pope induced him by 
presents and persuasion to spare the city. Not only 
that, but so taken was Luitprand "with the Pope, 
that he made him accept in the name of St. Peter, 
the town of Sutri. It was to be the private property 
of the Holy See. This was the first donation of a 
city to the Church, and thus Sutri may be said to be 
the germ of the Papal states. 

Wars continued to be waged between the Creeks 
and Lombards for the soil of Italy. Fortune fav- 
ored the Lombards. Encouraged by continual suc- 
cess, they at length resolved to make themselves 
masters of Rome. No secret was made of this re- 
solution. The Romans were shaken with fear. 
Gregory II. and III. had indeed drawn a wall 
round the city, but this would not long protect it. 
The Pope turned in this extremity to the Franks for 
assistance. He created Pepin a Roman Patrician. 



100 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Under the Eastern emperors this was the highest 
dignity in the state. There was usually annexed 
thereto a certain amount of ecclesiastical patronage, 
and the patrician had some voice in many matters 
relating to the Church. On sending Pepin the dig- 
nity, the Pope addresses him as follows: — "Be thou 
the shield and sword of the Koman Kepublic 
throughout all Italy, and be especially the advowee 
of the Church." Such was the means of protection 
which the Pope devised for himself and the Komans. 
The dignity conferred on Pepin gave the brave 
Frank no right whatever to any power in Italy. It 
entitled him not so much as to hold possession of a 
single hamlet. The manner of the Pope's acting in 
this affair proves, that though he had not formally 
thrown off the yoke of the Cresars, he yet looked 
upon himself as completely independent. 

The attainment of sovereign independence at this 
period by the successor of St. Peter, was remarkably 
providential. There was, on one side, the Eastern 
empire crumbling to the dust. "While the Greek could 
oppose no front to the onward march of victorious 
Islamism, he made the most ridiculous pretentions 
to a despotic interference in ecclesiastical affairs. 
In the "West, on the contrary, there were the vigor- 
ous and warlike German nations. These were de- 
voted heart and soul, to the Church and the Holy 
See. They were animated with all the impetuous 
zeal of recent converts. Between the two, the Popes, 
as champions of the great interests of the human 
race, occupied an independent and neutral ground, 



ROME AND THE POPES. 101 

which they sought to isolate more and more from 
the conflicting interests of different nationalities. 
Thus were the states of the Church formed, and this 
their meaning in the wond. 



XIX. 

ROME AS THE CAPITAL OF THE STATES 
OF THE CHURCH. 

St. Peter had made Rome the capital of the 
Christian world. The liveliest reminiscences of the 
heroic days of Christianity, of the persecutions and 
the martyrs, were here preserved. Rome was the 
one city that reflected all the glories of the past. 
Politically, Rome was not even the chief city of the 
Greek exarchate in Italy. It was second to Ravenna 
in which was the seat of government. Rome was 
merely a town of the "subject Italian province." 
But as the Pope was the recognized protector of all 
that portion of Italy which did not acknowledge the 
Lombard sway, and as he was the acknowledged 
head cf the ideal "Roman Republic," so Rome was 
always the capital of this ideal Italy which looked 
to the Pope as its chief ruler. It cannot be denied, 
however, that the Pope, at this period, possessed 
some rights not altogether imaginary over other 
towns and districts besides Rome and that Sutri, of 
which we spoke previously. "When Pepin after de- 
feating the Lombards in Italy made the famous 
" gift" to the Pope, he did so, not so much by way 
of donation as of restoration. In the council of 
state which he held with his nobles at Quercy, Pepin 
bound himself to see that the districts seized by the 
Lombards should be " given back" to the Holy See. 

102 



ROME AND THE TOPES. 103 

In .another document, we find the Pope demanding 
the cities and lands belonging to the See of Peter 
from the king of the Franks, who, he says "holds his 
own crown by a decision of the bishop of Rome." 
This "giving back" must in all likelihood mean that 
now the Pope took regular possession as rightful 
ruler of those cities and districts, which had long 
looked upon him as their natural head and protector, 
and which indeed he had heretofore shielded and 
provided for with all the means and influence ho 
could command. 

The territory then given to the Pope, comprised 
the exarchate of Ravenna, the five cities, Rimini, Pe- 
saro, Fano, Umana and Ancona, together with the 
town of Narni. Of Rome and the Roman duchy no 
mention is made. Perhaps it is because this territory 
had not to be conquered back from the Lombards. 
Nevertheless we find Pepin in the year 757, formally 
obliging the Romans to acknowledge the rule of the 
Pope, and exacting an oath of allegiance to the Pon- 
tiff. We do not stop to ask whether the Pope was 
justified in assuming the supreme rule of these 
provinces. They were long since completely lost to 
the Greek, and the emperor by abandoning them, 
had renounced all claim to any further possession. 

Thus did the successor of St. Peter become the 
regular sovereign of the States of the Church with 
Rome for their capital, and these States being the 
property, the demesne, the "patrimony" of St. Peter, 
belong not to any Pope as an individual nor to any 
family or faction, but to the entire Catholic Church. 

Let us now glance for an instant at the whole 



104 BOME AND THE POPES. 

chain of events that led to the establishment of the 
Papal rule. The independence which was thus 
secured the Pope is intimately connected with the 
role which the Papacy was destined to play in the 
world's history. Both were decreed and appointed 
by God, and both were given by Him for the benefit 
of the human family. The Papacy was made the 
centre of Christian unity. It is the foundation 
of the Church of Christ. To this, and not to 
the donation of Pepin, or to any political ability or 
intrigue, do the successors of St. Peter owe their ex- 
altation. The circumstances which immediately led 
to the supreme power and political independence of 
the Popes, were entirely without the range of politi- 
cal calculations. The weakness and folly of the 
Eastern emperors who could no longer hold their 
Italian dominions ; the ambition and avarice which 
possessed the Lombard kings and made them think 
of taking Rome and making it the seat of their 
government in Italy ; the rise of the great Carolo- 
vingian dynasty in France ; tb-3 love and veneration 
with which the inhabitants of Pome and the neigh- 
boring districts regarded the Pope ; as well as those 
circumstances which made them, for many a year 
previously, look up to him as their natural ruier; — 
it was to the providential combination of all these 
circumstances that the Popes owed the sovereign 
authority which they now acquired. The Most-High 
had wisely disposed all things for the purpose. 
There was no choice left the successor of St. Peter. 
He had to assume the supreme power. He did so. 
He raised Eome from her neglected decaying con- 



KOME AND THE POPES. 105 

dition and made her the flourishing capital of a 
stable and vigorous monarchy. The Pope saved 
Rome from the pitiless rule of the half-savage Lom- 
bards, and the Popes have that honor, which is 
unique in the world's history, that they came into 
possession of their states without committing or 
participating in the least act of injustice. Even in 
this, as in all else, the Popes, true to the great call- 
ing of the Papacy, only furthered the well-being of 
society by acquiring to themselves a regal crown. 

We have glanced at the ways of Providence in 
bringing about this independency of the Popes from 
the stand-point of the Papacy itself. The divine 
action is no less discernible, if we view the same 
event from the stand-point of the political condition 
of Europe at that period. It will appear evident to 
any one, that the Papacy was raised to a condition 
of sovereign independence, at the very time that it 
became absolutely necessary, for the preservation 
of Europe and civilization, that it should be such a 
power. 

The successor of St. Peter being supreme head 
of the Church and Vicar of Christ upon earth, is of 
course obliged to watch over the affairs of the entire 
Church. His voice must be heard in all parts of the 
Christian world advising and admonishing, investi- 
gating and judging, binding and loosing. "When the 
empire was the world, — Universus orbis — the Pope's 
voice could, in many ways, reach his most distant 
children, and, with a hierarchy disciplined after the 
model of the empire's strong system of centraliza- 
tion, the unity of the Church could be easily pre- 



106 KOME AND THE POPES. 

served. If the Pope liad then a political superior, 
this superior was also ruler of the world. This made 
a great difference as we shall see. For when the 
empire fell, and Europe was parcelled out into sev- 
eral independent kingdoms, the relations of the Pope 
to the world were wholly altered. Were the Pope 
now to be subject to any one of these, it were to be 
feared the others would, with difficulty, be induced 
to acknowledge him in their territories as the com- 
mon Father of the faithful. This, as we can easily 
comprehend, would be a fruitful source of schism, 
scandal and confusion in the Church. "What befell 
the patriarchs of Constantinople would befall the 
Popes. The schismatic Greek and the schismatic 
Russian churches hold the same dogmas. In this 
they are but one Church. All were formerly gov- 
erned by the patriarch of Constantinople; but as 
soon as the patriarch became a subject of the Sul- 
tan's dominions, the Russians would no longer ac- 
knowledge his supremacy. They would not admit 
as superior, one who was himself subject to the 
Turk. 

It is easy to understand the political grounds on 
which the different rulers would reject the influence 
of a spiritual authority subject to a foreign power. 
The spiritual power to reach all and be admitted by 
all, must be itself politically independent. The 
states of the Church were quite sufficient to secure 
the absolute freedom of the Pope against the des- 
potism of the Greeks, the Lombards, and all others, 
and at the same time as a political power, they were 
so insignificant that none could be jealous of their 



ROME AND THE POPES. 107 

strength or influence. They simply sufficed for tho 
independence of him who was to govern the entire 
Church, whose influence should be felt at once in all 
nations, without his being subject to any himself. 

To govern the Catholic Church, implies to be in 
immediate relations with every Church of Christen- 
dom, and hold regular communication with the eight 
or nine hundred bishops that preside over these 
churches; to appoint those bishops, to watch over 
the deposit of faith, the teaching of sound doctrine 
and pure morality, to maintain ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline, to decide on questions of faith, to prevent 
heresies creeping in, to uproot abuses, to further the 
spread of the gospel, and to send missionaries into 
every clime and country on the face of the earth for 
the purpose of propagating the Christian faith and 
inculcating the pure morality of our holy religion. 
Furthermore, the head of the Church must, through 
his legates, endeavor to preserve friendly relations 
with kings and princes and all manner of govern- 
ments. He must strive to maintain and promote 
that union and cordial understanding between the 
two powers, so useful, if not necessary to the wel- 
fare of each. From a consideration of those few 
points, we can perhaps form some idea of what the 
government of the Catholic Church means and what 
the weighty and countless cares of the successor of 
St. Peter. From all this it is easy to comprehend 
why it was ordained in the providence of God, that 
at the fall of the empire, the Pope should be clothed 
with temporal sovereign power. It was the only 
means whereby his independence could be secured, 



108 KOME AND THE POPES. 

and the Papacy play that part in the world's history 
for which it had been created. 

This temporal power of the Pope, the slow 
growth of centuries, and manifestly raised up by 
God for the freedom of religion and the Church, 
was looked on by all the nations of Christendom as 
something sacred; and that man would be held 
guilty of sacrilege, who should, under any pretext, 
dare lay hands on any part of this "Patrimony of 
St. Peter." 



XX. 

THE PAPAL STATES IN A NEW PHASE. 

From the time the Papal States took, as such, 
their place among the nations of Europe, until the 
year 800, the advowson of the Carolovingian dynasty- 
had to be often brought into play. The successor of 
St. Peter had, on more than one occasion, to invoke 
the protection of the Franks against the encroach- 
ments of the Lombards. This lasted until, after a 
decisive battle, Charlemagne declared the Lombard 
rule at an end, and placed the crown of Lombardy 
on his own head. The continual alarm in which the 
Popes stood, all those years, on account of the prox- 
imity of such hostile neighbors as the Lombards, no 
doubt made the idea occur to some of them, that it 
would be well to confer some more honorable title 
on the protectors of their states. Leo III. acted 
upon this idea. On Christmas night, of the year 800, 
the great Frank who had so nobly defended Chris- 
tendom against the caliphs of Spain, against the sav- 
age hordes of Hungaria and Sclavia, and against the 
obstinate valor of the Saxons in Northern Germany, 
Charlemagne, knelt at the tomb of the Apostles in 
St. Peter's basilica. As the solemnities were about 
to commence, the Vicar of Christ approached the 
kneeling monarch and solemnly placed the imperial 
crown upon his head. At this the people burst forth 

109 



HO ROME AND THE POPES. 

into the wildest acclamations, shouting: "Life and 
victory to the illustrious Charles, to him who is 
crowned by God, to the great and peace-giving em- 
peror of the Eomans!" 

This Roman-German empire was quite a different 
thing from the old empire or that of Constantinople. 
The imperialism in this case was simply a thing 
of ecclesiastical institution. It was created for the 
Church's sake, and belonged to herself, as the states 
from which she gave the title. In this sense, there 
is the closest connection between the Kaiser and 
the Church. Charlemagne had already written to 
the Pope : " Thy cares are my cares and my cares are 
also thine." The illustrious Frank had now received 
a sacred character. Among all the princes of the 
earth, he was the first-born, the eldest son of the 
church. As such he was to be honored before all 
others. But in return, it became his duty before 
all others, to yield submission and pay reverence to 
his mother. Thus was the imperial dignity linked 
with the states of the Church. 

Subsequent to this period, Europe presents a 
new order of things that may be designated the 
Christian-Germanic. The Holy See that was already 
the centre of Christianity in spirituals, now becomes 
also the centre of this new order in the political 
world. From this forward, we find the successor of 
St. Peter compelled more and more by the position 
of affairs, by the wishes and prayers and necessities 
of princes and peoples, by the force of general opi- 
nion, to take the place of umpire at the head of the 
European commonwealth, to declare, and see carried 



ROME AND THE POPES. Ill 

out, the Christian law of nations and to mediate be- 
tween princes and people on all sides. The nations 
of Europe formed then only one commonwealth 
which history has called Christendom. Between 
them was the common bond of Christian baptism 
which makes all, princes and people, no matter what 
the form of government, one in Christ. No politi- 
cian ever conceived any system of government better 
than that which was thus by God's providence, 
quietly brought about in Europe. 

Eome, the city of the Galilean fisherman, the capi- 
tal of a small territory, merely sufficient to secure 
the freedom of her ruler, was the legitimate source 
of the new imperialism. She was the metropolis of 
Christendom. In this character, she rejoresents in a 
manner incomparably higher than ancient Eome, 
the idea of Catholicity. This Eome is true to her 
sublime destiny. She shelters the great High-Priest 
of the world from the annoyance or interference of 
any earthly power in the discharge of his divine 
duties, and gives free access to him to all the nations 
of the earth. This spiritual centre attracts within 
its influence the most Northern German tribes and 
peoples, as well as the whole Celtic race of Western 
Europe. In the East, the Sclaves and the Magyars 
submit to the gentle yoke, and barbarism disappears, 
as the spiritual power of Eome is extended. The 
Eome of the Csesars anihilated nationalities, the 
Eome of St. Eeter recognizes and props them up. 
In her eyes, Eomans, Greeks, Germans, Celts, 
Sclaves, all are equal. She dispenses the blessings 
of religion to all alike, to the most distant and 



112 ROME AND THE POPES. 

wretched, as well as to the most mighty and flourish- 
ing races. This Kome, calls herself even in the 
worldly order, the mother of the nations, and, thanks 
to her own neutrality, she is enabled to hold forth 
for their imitation, the grand fundamental ideas on 
which society should be based, that high, though 
perhaps unattainable ideal of perfect government, 
founded on the eternal ethical truth of God. 

This idea of the perpetual neutrality of Eome is 
what preserved to the successor of St. Peter his 
peaceful possessions. The idea of a free Pope in his 
own independent principality is really a great and 
sublime one, and, even if the practical working be 
not up to the ideal, the latter is not the less sublime 
on that account. This ideal, in fact, was more than 
once, all but realized. Even to present the idea to 
society, and bring the nations to make efforts after 
its realization, was already a great stride on the 
way of progress and civilization. For this alone, 
had it never done ought else, were the erection of 
the Papacy into a temporal sovereignity an event of 
incalculable benefit to Europe. The state, which 
since the eleventh century, has been doing all this 
for Europe, and would have done so more effectual- 
ly had princes and people better understood their 
own interest, should be prized as the apple of the 
eye. It would be so prized too, were not the sub- 
lime Christian political idea completely lost sight of. 
The Papal States with their high destiny, should be 
looked on as the embodiment of a divine principle 
which God Himself introduced into the world for 
the good of the human race. 



ROME AND THE POPES. 113 

Such were the Koine of St. Peter, the Rome that 
would be, were it not for the infirmity of fallen man, 
and the old warfare waged by the wicked against 
God's kingdom on earth. 

8 



XXI. 

THE PAPAL STATES IN THEIR RELATION 
TO ITALY. 

■\Ve have seen how, under the directing hand of 
God, a state was formed in Italy which bore in a 
particular manner upon the eternal destinies of the 
whole human family. This state secured for the 
head of the Church a position of perfect freedom 
and independence, and thereby made him in all 
political disputes and contentions whether among 
princes or nations, an unprejudiced referee. 

We have said that the political independence of 
the Holy See was a necessary condition of the free- 
dom of the Church. This political independence is, 
so far as we can trace the finger of God in history, 
part of the divine plan of the Church's position on 
earth. Its foundations were therefore laid from the 
earliest days of her existence. The fall of the em- 
pire was evidently the moment for the accomplish- 
ment of the divine design. The subjugation of the 
greater part of Italy by the hardy Ostro-Goths, im- 
perilled the independence of the Papacy. Had these 
established themselves firmly on the soil of Italy, 
they would certainly take Rome for their capital. 
With this warlike and concentrated power once in 
strong possession, it were all over with the Papal 
States, and the freedom of Christ's Vicar. It would 

114 



ROME AND THE POPES. 115 

also come to pass, as we shall show hereafter, that 
the natural character of the Italians would com- 
pletely disapjjear. But the hand of Providence was 
guiding events. The Goths who thus menaced the 
Papacy, disappeared themselves from history. After 
the victories of Narses, there was little immediate 
danger that a Gothic-Italian kingdom would inter- 
fere with the future of St Peter's city. But neither 
was Constantinople to hold absolute sway over 
Borne. The " Eternal City " had fallen, under its rule, 
to the rank of a mere provincial town. True, the 
Greek emperor was himself far enough out of the 
Pope's way, but that state mechanism whereby Con- 
stantine had bound together the distant parts of his 
empire, could be used with effect by any of his succes- 
sors who might feel so disposed, to crush the eccle- 
siastical authority of the bishop of Rome. The in- 
dependent action of the Papacy was to be secured 
through the new order of things to be established in 
Europe. The Lombards came to Italy. They were 
a powerful people, yet not quite able to root out 
the Greeks. They could not drive the imperial 
troops off the soil nor consequently possess them- 
selves of the entire peninsula. While both these 
parties were contending for the mastery, the Pope's 
position of political independence was quietly 
strengthened and, after a little time, permanently 
secured. "We have before indicated the historical 
events which led to this consummation. 

And now we may ask, how did this new condi- 
tion of the Papacy — the political supremacy of the 
Popes — bear upon Italy? The Pope who is head of 



116 ROME AND THE POPES. 

the Church is also an Italian prince. His duties 
towards the Church are, in no wise, incompatible 
with his obligations towards his subjects. As an 
Italian j)rince he loves his country and furthers her 
welfare; as Vicar of Christ and successor of St. Pe- 
ter, he loves the Church and serves her as " Servant 
of the servants of God." This double love, this 
twofold duty go hand in hand, and each rather as- 
sists than obstructs the other. "Where the earthly 
ruler can merely see his native land, the Pope sees 
native land and furthermore a portion of Christ's 
great kingdom of souls. The majorities of the 
Popes were Italians by birth. For centuries back, 
none but Italians are eligible. The Pope's supreme 
council, the College of Cardinals, are nearly all Ital- 
ians. In like manner, the several courts for treating 
the general affairs of the Church, and the different 
Roman congregations are mainly composed of Ital- 
ians. And lastly, Italians besides being the only 
ones eligible to the Chair of Peter, are generally 
preferred and, indeed, sometimes too exclusively, to 
all the dignities and emoluments of the Papal Court. 
Between the decline of the old imperial rule and 
the rise of the great monarchies of modern times, 
Italy, with the Pope and his government in her 
midst, and with her other nourishing principalities, 
republics, and free cities, certainly had her day, — a 
day of dazzling glory and power, such as none of the 
sister nations of Europe has yet surpassed. The 
Italian nation, although not one centralized power, 
yet lived and moved with perfect freedom in ac- 
cordance with the national tastes. 



KOME AND THE POPES. 



117 



Political science reached a high degree of per- 
fection in all the cities of Italy, and the most cor- 
rect notions as to the best interests of communities, 
wero arrived at in those little free republics. In 
military matters, both as to the bravery of tlio 
troops and the skill of the generals, the Italians 
ranked foremost in Europe. This flourishing Italy, 
however, was for a long time subject to the German 
Kaiser. But when the emperor abused his power to 
oppress the country, that Italy of the Popes — the 
States of the Church, — stood manfully up for its 
rights, and, if overpowered for a season, never rest- 
ed till it had recovered either by diplomacy or the 
sword, its lost piivileges or possessions. "Without 
being part of a united Italy, it was national, it was 
catholic and, at the same time, an Italy of the 
Italians. 

At the time the States of the Church took their 
place among the governments of Europe, the germs 
of these remarkable Italian nationalties were al- 
ready commencing to develop. The successor of 
St. Peter, under whose protecting care they ad- 
vanced to maturity, had indeed often sore need of 
more material power than what the small " Patri- 
mony of St. Peter" could supply. He was often the 
only prince in Italy who dared make head against 
the Kaiser in defense of Italians and Italian rights. 
Still, such as she was, Italy owed her all to the 
Popes. 



XXII. 
THE SARACENS IN ITALY. 

"We shall mention here only a few of the most 
important events that took place in Italy between 
the years 830 and 880. Storms burst over Italy 
within these fifty years that threatened the complete 
anihilation of Christian society. 

The monarchy of Charlemagne had fallen to de- 
crepitude. The king of the Franks, the eldest son 
and chosen adowee of the Church, had now his 
hands full to mind himself. Southern Italy fell into 
the hands of the Saracens. These had crossed from 
the coast of Africa, Candia, and Spain, thirsting for 
the concpiest of the beautiful Italian peninsula. In 
the year 831, the crescent waved triumphantly over 
Sicily. The news that Palermo had fallen into the 
mussulman's hands and was become a seat of Sara- 
cen power, struck fear and horror into the hearts of 
the Romans. From the sea, the city was entirely 
open to the enemy. The old crumbling walls of 
Porto and Ostia would not check the grim foe for an 
hour, should the Caliph resolve to carry out his in- 
tentions of attacking Rome from the Tiber. "With 
all haste, Pope Gregory IV. had the fortifications of 
the harbor repaired. He superintended the works 
in person. But the dissensions of the two dukes 
who held Southern Italy, gave the enemy an easy 

118 



ROME AMD THE POPES. 



119 



passage by land. The Caliph marched to Rome and 
plundered the two basilicas of the Apostles, Peter 
and Paul. But after some time spent before the 
walls, he had to draw off his troops without having 
effected an entrance into the city. 

The enemy was gone, but the danger remained. 
St. Leo IV. succeeded Gregory. Leo's name ranks 
with the greatest of St. Peter's successors. He 
proved as competent a ruler in temporals, as he was 
in spiritual matters. In the ineseucc of such fierce 
and powerful enemies, he managed to defend with 
surprising success, both the city and his States. 
Heretofore the Vatican and its adjoining grounds 
were not within the city proper. On this account St. 
Peter's fell an easy prey to the Saracens. Leo now 
extended the limits of the city so as to include the 
Vatican hill. This new jiortion of the city was called 
after his name. The harbor fortifications were not 
yet completed, when tidings reached Rome that an 
immense Saracen fleet was being fitted up for an at- 
tack on Rome by water. This was in 819. The Pope 
on receiving the intelligence called on Naples and 
Gaeta to send a few vessels to his assistance. They 
came under command of a young officer named Cre- 
sarius, and had only just entered the mouth of the 
Tiber, when the Saracens hove in sight. Leo him- 
self at the head of his troops hastened off to Ostia 
to meet the foe. It was a time of frightful anxiety 
for Rome and Italy. 

Mid singing of hymns and psalms, Leo led his 
little army to the Church of St. Aurea in Ostia, and 
there confessed and administered holy communion 



120 R03IE AND THE POPES. 

to the soldiers. He then knelt and prayed: — "O 
God, "Who supported the sinking Peter, and delivered 
Thy Apostle Paul when he was a third time ship- 
wrecked, hear us, we beseech Thee, through the 
merits of both, and grant strength to the arms of 
these Thy faithful, who are about to do battle against 
the infidel enemies of Thy Church, to the end that 
in the victory Thy name may be glorified amongst 
all nations." 

The Saracen sail appeared and an immense fleet 
rode Tip before Ostia. The Christians gave battle at 
once. They pressed their galleys eagerly forward to 
the fight. But a storm soon arose and separated the 
combatants in hopeless confusion. The enemy's 
ships were scattered in all directions. Most of them 
went to the bottom and the remainder were cast up 
disabled on the coast. The Saracen loss w;is tre- 
mendous. Numbers were killed in the battle, but 
many more perished by the fury of the elements. 
The survivors were taken in chains to Rome and put 
to work on the new Vatican fortifications. Thus the 
very hands that sought and fought to demolish 
Rome, are now compelled to add to her strength. 

This battle before Ostia was the fitting prelude 
to that of Lepanto. The young Caesarius was the 
worthy predecessor of the hero, Don Juan, and 
Leo IV. in the one, is what Pius V. is in the other. 
If the engagement before Ostia was not so magnifi- 
cent in the display of forces, it was certainly as de- 
cisive of the fate of Italy. Raphael has left a paint- 
ing of the battle scene which now hangs in the Va- 
tican. The Romans lon£ celebrated the commemora- 



ROME AND TEE POPES. 121 

tion of the victory, as one obtained of heaven 
through the intercession of the blessed Apostles 
Peter and Paul. 

For some years after this battle, the Saracens 
left Pome alone. St. Nicholas I. was a prudent and 
competent prince, and maintained tranquillity both 
in the city and throughout his states. He was the 
first Pontiff who assumed the regal crown and was 
perhaps the ablest as well as the most fortunate oc- 
cupant of the Chair of Peter since it was filled by 
the Great Gregory. Princes might take a lesson 
of him how to govern, while he was to ecclesias- 
tics a model of apostolic zeal and sacerdotal virtue. 
Under St. Nicholas was brought into full light the 
great idea of the Christian Republic of nations, each 
working out within itself its own proper develop- 
ment, with the Holy See in the midst of all, advis- 
ing, encouraging, judging, condemning, restraining. 

His successor Adrian II. nobly upheld this high 
position. In the early part of his reign, however, 
he had several difficulties to encounter. The Eoman 
aristocracy became impatient. The iron heel of the 
Csosars was no longer there to bend their stiff necks. 
The nobles grew refractory and rebellious. They 
rose in arms against the Pope, but only succeeded 
in bringing dishonor and disgrace upon themselves. 
Before this trouble was entirely allayed, Adrian died. 
In his place John VIII. was elected. John grasped 
the reins of government firmly, and to the close of 
his life, kept the mutinous nobility sternly under. 

During this Pope's reign the Saracens appeared 
again. They overran Southern Italy and threw the 



122 EOME AND THE POPES. 

whole country into the wildest confusion. They 
marched upon Naples, Gaeta, Amain, Salerno, and 
forced the troops of the captured garrisons to fight 
in their own ranks. They then turned upon Rome, 
and with the co-operation of the fleet which was to 
attack the city from the sea, those terrible enemies 
of the Christian name resolved, once and for all, to 
raze the hated capital of Christendom to the ground. 
At this terrible moment when European society and, 
Christianity itself seemed doomed, John VIII. was 
the only prince who prepared to resist the foe. The 
energy and activity he displayed on the occasion, 
may well put the other potentates of Europe to the 
blush. It Avas in vain he appealed to many of them 
for assistance. Those who did pretend to render 
any, were at best but slow and doubtful allies. Nay, 
this imminent danger to Rome and to Christendom 
was rather pleasing than otherwise to a few who 
fancied they saw therein some personal advantage 
to themselves. 

The Saracens chose as a base of operations 
Vesuvius and Garagliano. They thus maintained 
their communications with Greece and Southern 
Italy, while they could advance at short notice upon 
the States of the Church. They only awaited now 
the arrival and co-operation of the numerous fleet 
which was to ascend the Tiber. The Pope hastily 
constructed a number of small vessels and equipped 
them as circumstances would best allow. He started 
in person for Naples to induce the duke to break off 
his sinful alliance with the Mahommedans. It was 
labor in vain. The alliance was advantageous to 



HOME AND THE POPES. 7 123 

Sergius and lie would not renounce it. John placed 
him under the ban and hastened back to Rome. In 
his anxiety of mind he bethought him that St. Peter 
not only carried the keys but also the sword. Learn- 
ing that the coasts of Fundi and Terracina were 
already wasted by the enemy, John hastened to 
Portus in person and immediately made sail with a 
number of small craft to meet the Mussulman. The 
two fleets sighted each other off Cape of Circe and 
closed in fight. Victory declared for the Papal gal- 
leys. John took eighteen of their ships, and set at 
liberty upwards of six hundred Christian slaves. 
Notwithstanding this splendid victory, John was 
unable to maintain his ground in Italy. He fled to 
France. But after a short stay he returned to Pome 
again. Of all the princes in Italy, there was not a single 
one, save himself, who could muster courage or resolu- 
tion enough, to oppose the Saracens. Seeing that ho 
was absolutely unable to maintain the unequal contest, 
John was at length driven to purchase immunity for 
his city and his states from the Infidel by the pay- 
ment of a large tribute. His death, which took 
place in the year 882, relieved him from his heavy 
trials and labors. It is probable that he died a 
violent death at the hands of his personal enemies 
in the city. John VIII. was a man of a firm and de- 
termined, but withal, very equable character. His 
is the last of the great names in that glorious list of 
free and free-elected Poman Pontiffs of the ninth 
century. The political supremacy of the Popes was 
not, it must be owned, without its dangers and in- 
conveniences. Nevertheless no argument of its 



124 ROME AND THE POPES. 

nature could be more conclusive than is that drawn 
from the history of the sad seventy or eighty years 
after John's death, in favor of the necessity of such 
supremacy. Supreme political power is absolutely 
necessary to secure that independence of the Papa- 
cy, without which it is morally impossible for the 
Pope to govern the Church. The story of these 
years will make it evident to any thinking mind, 
that the Pope, to be free in religious matters, must, 
in temporals, be subject to no power whatsoever, be 
it king or kaiser, an aristocracy or democracy. 

After John's demise, Rome and its environs be- 
came the prey of an ambitious faction of the nobil- 
ity. The Holy See fell helplessly into their hands. 
The Church must now, in the person of her su- 
preme head, drink the cup of shame to the dregs. 
That the Church outlived this dark period, is the 
paradox of history. It is a proof that God's own 
hand is with her and can deliver her when hope 
seems lost and all the powers of earth and hell are 
risen up to crush her. Now, from the annals of 
those dark days, we should learn a lesson for the 
present. History but repeats itself. We know what 
brought those evils beyond measure on the Church 
and such deep humiliation home to her children. 
The present is written in the past. Like causes will 
produce like effects again. And if there is any one 
truth inculcated more strongly than another in the 
whole course of centuries it is this, — that neither 
Romans nor Italians, neither King nor Kaiser nor 
President can do violence to the independence of 
the Holy See, without bringing certain destruction 



ROME AND THE POPES. 125 

on themselves, and imperilling the peace of Europe. 
That indpendence is menaced in our day. European 
society and European civilization is therefore trem- 
bling on the brink of a precipice. 



rART SECOND. 



Jam ni te meritium Petri Paulique foverei, 

Tempore jam longo Roma misellafores. 
But for tho aegis spread o'er thee by Peter and Fau], 
Long siuco kadst thou, Rome, from tuo cities of earth disappeared, 



I. 

ROME WITHOUT PETER. 

Rome without the Pope! As well conceive a 
bright day without the sun. Rome, and Rome no 
longer the city of the Apostles ! Rome nothing but 
an every-day city of butchers and bakers, buyers and 
sellers, attorneys and druggists ! Rome without the 
Holy Father ! and who can picture to his mind or 
describe fhe city of nothingness, the city of rum and 
desolation that would be left ! 

At the sight of any city that has lost its ancient 
splendor and importance, in whose streets and 
squares the grass shoots up, whose deserted store- 
houses and once gaudy palaces, now lie open to the 
four winds of heaven, — no matter what may have 
been the cause of the desolation, wiiether it was 
that the tide of commerce was turned from its gates, 
so that its merchants like those of Tyre and Sidon 

127 



128 B0ME AND THE POPES. 

can no longer be the princes on 'change, or whether 
it was because the seat of empire was removed from 

its midst and the court transferred to a far-off city, 

no matter what the reason, one cannot look on such 
a sight and not feel a dreariness of soul steal upon 
him corresponding to the dreary scene he gazes on. 
But were Rome once reduced to this condition what 
a picture of unutterable ruin she, that "city of dead 
empires" would present! Her condition would be 
worse than that of Athens where nothing more will 
nourish ;-worse than Thebes, the granite quarry of the 
world, from which, for the last two thousand years, 
have been drawn those wonderful obelisks that stand 
scattered here and there in our modern cities, and 
which look in their loneliness as if they wept over the 
glories they had seen;— worse than Ninive or Perse- 
polis, or Babylon with their mountains of brick and 
tile and vitrified rubbish;— in a word, Testaccio that 
hill of refuse and broken crockery outside her own 
gates, were the best representation of what Borne 
would be without the Pope. The Romans would be 
soon impoverished. The few that would remain, 
would be scattered through the city as the sparse 
inhabitants of a suburb. Their king would be the 
custodian of ill-kept museums, and their consuls, if 
they could retain even such officials, the antiquar- 
ies that would piece-meal sell Borne to the English. 
Such the condition to which the city would soon, 
sink without the Holy Father. 

Now are we drawing on our imagination for what 
we say. The page of history is open to all. It 
teaches us by what happened before, reasonably to 



ROME AND THE POPES. 129 

infer what would happen under like circumstances 
again. 

As we have already said, the Romans entered 
upon that high destiny to which their city was 
called, endowed with all those natural talents for 
which the Italians are so remarkable. They had the 
advantage, too, of an advanced degree of culture. 
They had the inspiring memories of their glorious 
past. But the old heathen spirit would at times 
break out in childish boasting, and in an unruly 
grasping at their chimerical idea of national power 
and greatness. It was with the Romans precisely 
as with a half-civilized barbarian. Old habits 
and vices will crop up from time to time in him, 
and for a season he will be the barbarian again. 
There was always a double Rome in history, or 
rather, as in the case of our barbarian, the old 
heathen principles were never thoroughly eradicated. 
From time to time as circumstances give them 
strength, these principles spring into action and 
often prevail for a period over the Christian idea. 
Rome regenerated, the Rome of the Popes, must 
then go under. Heathen principles triumph, and 
the city, for the time being, is heathen once more, 
The study of this perpetual conflict of the heathen 
and Christian principle in Rome, affords a lesson 
that he who runs may read. The Popes were never 
deprived of their authority in Rome, were never 
compelled to take refuge elsewhere, that the city 
was not in consequence reduced to poverty and de- 
solation, that Rome did not become a meaningless 
nothing among the cities of the earth. 



130 ROME AND THE POPES. 

The darkest days of Roman history are those in 
which she was alas too truly secularized in the hands 
of petty tyrants and wanton debauchees. At that 
same period Christianity in other lands was giving 
birth to the noblest institutions. It produced 
numerous eminent and holy men whose learning 
was as profound as their piety was sincere. And 
while the Church thus nourished and was honored 
in her children, the Romans were learning in the 
blood that stained their streets and the debaucheries 
that polluted their homes, what Rome would be 
without the Pope, or what was just as bad, what she 
would be with a Pope not free or one not freely 
elected. These were seventy years with very few 
glimmerings of light indeed to relieve the dismal 
cast of the picture. To this period of the degrada- 
tion of the Papacy, to those years of trouble and 
complete confusion of all social and moral rights, 
succeeded another sad period in the history of the 
Church. The Popes were arbitrarily set up by the 
German Kaiser, and though, as far as the Ottos at 
least were concerned, some regard was had to merit, 
the principle was ruinous, as it destroyed the free- 
dom of the Church and subjected the spiritual 
power almost completely to the will of the emperor. 

Then followed the other seventy years of exile at 
Avignon. Here mid the most trying vexations, the 
Popes frequently deprived of their natural counsel- 
lors had to perform their weighty duties to the 
Church and solve the most intricate questions on all 
manner of subjects. They were not always free as 
to the decisions to be given, and even when they 



ROME AND THE POPES. 131 

were so, the evil was almost as great, for the world 
did not think them free. What, let us ask, was 
Rome during these seventy years ? We shall an- 
swer further on. In passing, we may remark that 
the States of the Church were dismembered, and that 
anarchy and the dagger ruled in Rome. The few 
pilgrims who then visited the tomb of the Apostles 
appeared, as the eminent Villani expressed it, " like 
sheep among a parcel of wolves." Then burst the 
terrible revolution at the end of the last century 
over Europe, a revolution which we have seen feeb- 
ly echoed in our own times. Pius VI., Pius VII. 
and Pius IX. were taken prisoners at Rome or forced 
to fly the city. What was Rome during their ab- 



sence 



In the following pages we shall endeavor to 
throw some light on these important periods of 
Roman history, and show where the proper place 
and real interests of Rome lie. 



II. 

SECULARIZED ROME OF THE NINTH CEN- 
TURY. 

The Popes, as we have already remarked, acquired 
a glorious place in European history during the 
middle ages. That place, .unfortunately for European 
society and civilization, they were not destined long 
to hold. Charlemagne was crowned at Rome in the 
year 800. Before the close of the ninth century, the 
great monarchy which ho had so laboriously built 
up, had melted into nothing. Internal dissensions 
and civil wars had gnawed away its vitals, and the 
constant division and subdivision of the territory in- 
to independent principalities completed the dissolu- 
tion. Nor was there, when the Frankish empire thus 
dwindled away, any other strong power that could 
wield a steadying influence in European affairs. The 
Church was deprived of her advowee, and the Pope, 
devoid of any competent armed force, was unable to 
prevent ambitious neighbors from seizing on por- 
tions of his states. The doings of the nobility in the 
city itself were still more deplorable. They took the 
election of the Popes into their own hands, and 
only men who were ready to devote themselves un- 
conditionally to the faction or family interests of 
their patrons, could hope to be admitted to the chair 

of St. Peter. 

132 



ROME AND THE POPES. 133 

Through their extensive family connections and 
alliances, some of the Romans at that time were 
possessed of great power and influence. The Kaiser 
gone, they had no one to fear. Among them were 
found some very bad men. These gave themsolves up 
in the most unblushing manner to every species of vice. 
They feared neither God nor man, and when there 
was a point to gain or a passion to be gratified, 
stopped at no crime however enormous. The Pope is 
either their prisoner in a dungeon, or a fugitive from 
the city, to escape their violence, or a man, as it some- 
times happened, of their own stamp and party. The 
Christian world had to look on and see the Papacy 
dishonored and abused by a faction of violent and 
godless Roman nobles. They had as little respect 
for the city and the Roman name, as they had for 
the outraged Apostolic dignity. Some of these 
wretches, Gregory and his son-in-law George, with 
others equally infamous, actually plundered the La- 
teran basilica and other churches, and this while the 
Saracens were in the neighborhood wasting the 
Campagna with fire and sword. The robbers made 
away out of the city at night with their sacrilegious 
booty, leaving one of the gates of Rome wide open. 
Had even some one family or faction been strong 
enough not only to seize the reins of power but also 
to hold them, things had never come to such a woe- 
ful condition. But it was now one faction and then 
another held sway. The Romans of these days, it 
would seem, used all their might to annihilate the 
Papacy. Its possessions — the "Patrimony" — was 
the booty of a thousand robbers. Ten times within 



134 ROME AND THE POPES. 

a few years was the city on the point of being de- 
molished. The cities, towns and villages all round 
were pulled down, their inhabitants stripped or mur- 
dered and their bishops put to flight. All who could 
escape took shelter within the walls of Borne. In 
the adjoining towns and rural districts, not a soul 
remained, man, woman or child. A strange and 
dense darkness overspread the city. The dark forms 
of the furious and factious barons of the city and 
Campagna, might be seen rushing through the fog, 
fighting with, and murdering each other, burning 
and destroying all before them. At length from this 
fermenting chaos of wild licentiousness rose by de- 
grees, certain families and certain individuals above 
their fellows, until finally one of them was able to 
declare himself dictator. 

"Within eight years, no less than eight Popes 
were set up and hurled down. The streets of Rome 
were running with the blood of her citizens. Fac- 
tion met faction in fierce fray, and the dagger was 
in constant service. The government of the city 
passed into the hands of laics, the "judices de militia" 
as they called themselves. 

We may well say of those years that fiction can- 
not fancy anything equal to fact. The barons of 
Spoletto, — the so-called national party, — had in- 
truded one of their own faction into the Apostolic 
chair. The blind fanatacism of party hate not un- 
frequently disturbed the repose of the dead. A long 
deceased predecessor of the new Pope must now 
be solemnly deposed and excommunicated. A synod 
was assembled for the purpose in February or March 



KOME AND THE POPES. 135 

897. The corpse which had been over eight months 
in the grave was exhumed. Clad in its pontifical 
robes, it was brought in its putrifying condition 
from the tomb of St. Peter's to the council-hall. 
While the body emitted its putrid stench through 
the hall, the prosecutor arose, and with juridical 
solemnity put the question : — " Why hast thou am- 
bitiously usurped the Apostolic Chair?" The dead 
man was condemned, the robes torn from the corpse, 
three fingers of the right hand were cut off, and 
then mid the jeers of the rabble and the most 
barbarous shouting the decaying body was wildly 
dragged from the hall along the streets and cast in- 
to the Tiber. As the inhuman drama closed, the 
Lateran basilica in which the synod of deposition 
had been held, fell with a crash to the earth. 
Stephen VI. who was induced by his relatives to go 
through that revolting farce, suffered the most mor- 
tal agonies in the neighboring palace in which he 
dwelt. Stephen himself was subsequently strangled 
in prison. After his death, the body of Forruosus 
was picked up by fishermen and brought back to its 
tomb. The horrified Komans relate that the pictures 
and statues of the chapel bowed their heads in re- 
verence as the unhappy dead was brought in. 

Such was the horrible condition of things in " sec- 
ularized" Rome: — utter contempt of all law human 
and divine, fierce hate and savage revenge, lust un- 
bridled, wild ambition, and the maddest intoxication 
of human reason. History itself is silent in the wild 
commotion. The only records of this fearful period 
that have reached us are found in the acts of some 



136 ROME AST) THE POPES,, 

two synods. John IX. became Pope. His reign was 
too brief to allow him to undo the scandalous acts 
of his predecessors. His earliest attention was given 
to the synod that sat in judgment on the corpse. 
He assembled his council. All the bishops and 
priests who had signed the decision were cited. 
They pleaded that they were forced to do so by the 
lawless barons. They cast themselves upon their 
knees before the Pope and sued for pardon. The 
synod was formally condemned. Those who had 
taken a guilty part in it were placed under the ban, 
and the faction that had profaned the sanctity of the 
grave had to fly the city, to escape the indignant 
burst of popular feeling which their sacrilegious con- 
duct now called forth. They fled to Tuscany, but 
only bided their opportunity to enter Rome again. 
Surely, this was a horrible state of affairs. But we 
have not yet stated the worst. The condition of the 
whole country was as bad as that of Rome. "Small 
choice," says the proverb, " in rotten apples," and it 
were indeed hard to choose between the bloody and 
reckless factions that desolated Rome, the hordes of 
fierce Magyars that wasted the North, and the Sara- 
cens in the South, who from their stronghold of Ga- 
ragliano devastated the country for miles around, 
for the space of thirty years. Such, secularized 
Rome, such, Italy hi those times. 

There was only one man then, who took the 
honor of Rome and the Italian name to heart, and 
that one man was a Pope, John X. Just because he 
did so however, he was vilified on all sides, and 
made the butt of every calumny that the wretched 



ROME AND TITE TOrES. 137 

party-spirit of tho times could devise. It was only 
in recent times, after history was written anew, that 
the name of John X. was at length extricated from 
the pile of calumny heaped upon it, and presented 
to the world as that of a man who was great enough 
to rise above the grovelling influences of his day and 
do honor to Rome, when she was steeped in dis- 
honor hy her lay rulers. 



ni. 

RO^IE UNDER THE TYRANNICAL DYNASTIES 
OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 

That the Papacy and the Papacy alone was all 
these years the only hope for Italy even in a politi- 
cal point of view, is abundantly proved by the fact, 
that, whenever the Holy See regained even a little 
of its freedom, Italy looked np and gave promise of 
better things even if she did not always produce 
them. Enslave the Pope and the country goes to 
ruin. But too few, alas ! and far between, were the 
intervals of freedom enjoyed during this period by 
the Popes. 

The hundred-headed hydra of faction rose again. 
John X., who vanquished the Saracens at Garaglia- 
no, was no match for this monster. Rome is again 
hidden in darkness, and Italy a prey to the most 
frightful anarchy. The lewd Marozia ruled the city. 
She set her bastard son in the chair of St. Peter. 
The voice of history is hushed upon the affairs of 
Rome during his reign. During the sway of his 
mother and her party, the city is sunk in darkness, 
and things were as bad or worse, if possible, through- 
out the rest of Italy. 

It was the year 930. Hugo in the North of Italy 
declared himself king. He was an intriguing, crafty 
man, licentious and ambitious. He was as bold and 

138 



ROME AND THE POPES. 139 

daring to conceive, as he was unscrupulous and 
prompt to carry out his plans of aggrandizement. 
His ambition was to establish himself king of all Italy, 
and be crowned at Rome on the Capitol. Marozia 
herself invited and pressed him to enter Rome. The 
government of the city was, in reality, no longer in 
the hands of the Pope. Hugo came, but was soon 
after driven in disgrace from the city by Alberich, 
another natural son of that ill-famed woman. Albe- 
rich now snatched the reigns of power out of his 
mother's hands, and formally introduced into Rome 
the system of the tyrants of the ancient cities of 
Greece. The Romans had to recognize him as their 
lord. He styled himself "Alberich, Prince and Sen- 
ator of all the Romans." Rome now tried to descend 
from the rank of capital of Christendom, and take 
place by the side of the little Italian duchies and 
principalities of Benevento, Naples, Tuscany, Ve- 
nice, etc. 

The power of Alberich rested on his wide and in- 
fluential family connections, on his immense wealth, 
and his popularity with the Roman aristocracy. This 
bold man acted the absolute king of Rome for a con- 
siderable time. In all his public acts and documents, 
however, the name of the Pope and the year of his 
reign were mentioned as if the latter really reigned. 
History does not accuse Alberich of the crimes com- 
mitted by his cotemporaries. He seems to have 
been a man of firm character, and to have wielded 
his power with a strong and steady hand. He held 
the weak Popes whose names he made use of com- 
pletely under his dominion. He set them up at 



140 ROME AMD THE POPES. 

will, and pulled them down in like manner, as in the 
case of Stephen VIII., if they hesitated to become 
the willing tools of his policy. They were generally 
however very pliable, for Alberich was careful in his 
choice. It is written for instance of Marinus II. 
"that he in all things obeyed the commands of his 
prince, without whose orders the good man at- 
tempted nothing." Electus Marinus Papa lion aude- 
hat adtingere aliquid extra jussionem Alberici prindpis. 
Under such circum stances the Popes, not unfre- 
quently, could neither act the part of the vigilant 
bishop nor that of the honest man. Alberich's 
policy occasionally demanded acts on their part 
which such characters could not perform. Alberich 
died in the year 954 But the "Prince of Rome" 
had learned before his death, that the separation of 
the spiritual from the temporal power in the city of 
St. Peter could not be of lasting duration. He ac- 
cordingly assembled the Roman nobles in St. Peter's, 
a short time before he died, and had them solemnly 
to swear that his son and heir, Octavian should be 
elected Pope. Pursuant to this oath, the boy who 
could have hardly reached his sixteenth year, and al- 
ready displayed every indication of early profligacy, 
was actually thrust into the Apostolic chair. In the 
person of this grand-son of ilarozia, the Papacy was 
reduced to its deepest degradation, and Pome to the 
lowest depth of dishonor and humiliation. 

Be me is now fully secularized. She is become 
the capital of an obscure and petty duchy. The 
Pope and the Papacy are at the mercy of her petty 
rulers. That sublime power which was raised up by 



HOME AND THE POPES. 141 

God to preside over Christendom, is wielded at will 
by a despicable tyrant. Rome's own high calling is 
lost sight of. The light of science, even ecclesiasti- 
cal science, burned never so faintly. It seemed on 
the point of being extinguished altogether. But we 
know the causes of this dark desolation. No need 
to be surprised at the results. Such results from 
such causes are as natural as they are invariable. 
People in other lands were at that time completely 
bewildered. They could not understand what they 
witnessed. In a synod held at Kheims, the bishops 
said to the Papal legates: — "At the present day in 
Rome there is scarcely a single man who knows 
enough to be ordained ostiarius. With what face 
then can those at Rome undertake to teach us and 
the world what they know nothing about them- 
selves? Such gross ignorance is unpardonable in 
the bishop of Rome, whose duty it is to decide on 
matters of faith, moral and, discipline throughout 
the whole Church." 

The Patrimony of St. Peter, the Papal States, 
which had been accpiired to the Church by the pa- 
tient industry of centuries, all now fell into the 
hands of different lay lords. Rome and its imme- 
diate vicinity nominally remained to the Church. 
But, as we have seen, it was secularized to the full. 
The Crescentii seized on the Sabine territory and 
Prseneste; the duke of Tuscany occupied Southern 
Tuscany together with the duchies of Spoleto and 
Camerino. Ravenna with its surrounding district 
and the Pentapolis were likewise lost to the Holy 
See. The only source of income left the Popes, were 



142 ROME ANT) THE POPES. 

a few fiefs that had escaped the general spoliation. 
All the treasures of the Church were squandered — 
squandered -with a prodigality scandalous even for 
those days of scandal. In after time, everything 
had to be purchased anew. It took more than two 
centuries to heal the wounds which that seculariza- 
tion inflicted on the Church. The city of Rome was 
as severe a sufferer, and the dishonor which the 
Romans of those days brought upon themselves and 
the Roman name, remains, to Rome's eternal dis- 
grace, indelibly written on the page of history. 



IV. 

NOMINATION OF THE POPES BY THE GER* 
MAN KAISER. 

By the unworthy manner in which they had be- 
gun to dispose of the Holy See, the Roman nobility 
had brought disgrace upon all Christendom. Theii 
example was afterwards followed by the German 
emperors; first, by those of the house of Saxon}-, 
afterwards, by those of the Frankish dynasty. This 
lasted for about a period of ninety years, say in 
round numbers, from 9G0 to 1050. 

After such a night of dreary darkness, it is real- 
ly refreshing to see towards the close of the tenth 
century, in the year 99G, two vigorous and noble 
spirits at once arise, the one at the head of the 
spiritual power of Christendom, the other, master of 
the temporal. These were the German Pope Gre- 
gory V. and the German emperor Otto III. The 
young Pope scarcely five and twenty years of age, 
was as learned as he was truly pious. Otto was 
called the prodigy ( Weltwunder) of his time. These 
twin spirits were the Christian Castor and Pollux of 
that age, and the dawn of the glorious morrow 
promised by their reign, lit up the closing days of 
that darkest of dark ages, the tenth century. "With 
such a Pope and such an emperor united as they 
\vere by the ties of blood as well as by kindred feel- 

143 



144 EOME AND THE POPES. 

inga and sentiments, it was hopefully believed that 
that era which the best and purest souls in Christen- 
dom had long been praying for, was at last inaugur- 
ated. Church and State seemed to repose on 
that foundation which is safest for both, — close 
harmony and unanimity betAveen their supreme 
rulers. 

But Gregory's reign was short. Still the shade 
cast upon the glorious prospect by his death was not 
of long duration. A worthy successor to Grego- 
ry, the venerable Archbishop Gerbert, under the 
name of Sylvester II., was soon raised to the 
Apostolic chair. Gerbert had seen much of the 
world. He had been tutor to the young emperor, 
and had formerly been a Benedictine abbot. He was 
considered the most accomplished scholar of his age. 
Pope and Kaiser are again in harmonious union, 
and, as the tenth century closed, the most cordial 
understanding existed between the two. 

But neither Gregory nor Sylvester was freely 
elected. They were appointed directly by Otto III. 
as their immediate predecessors were by Otto the 
Great and Otto II. "With the Christian view of 
rescuing the Papacy from the disgraceful Ptoman 
factions, the emperors took upon themselves to 
name the Pope. Experience had not yet taught 
them that nothing whatever can be so ruinous to the 
Church as the want of freedom especially in the 
choice of her supreme head, the Pope. 

All three of the Ottos, father, son and grand- 
son, came to look upon the Holy See as a benefice 
at their disposal. It was viewed as an appendage to 



ROME AND THE POPES. 145 

the imperial power. Otto the Great from the mo- 
ment of his coronation charged himself with the 
advowson of the Church. But the manner of his 
protection was that of a formal wardship. It really 
amounted to a complete subjection of the Holy See 
to himself. With a high hand he set aside John XII., 
that son of Alberich, and appointed another in his 
stead. John was not a worthy Pope, but he was 
nevertheless the lawf ally elected one. Otto assumed 
exclusive control of the Pontifical elections. The 
canonical ones held, were mere farces. The voters had 
simply to ratify Otto's nomination. Nor did he ground 
his interference on the actual necessities of the 
times, seeing what a state of things existed in Rome. 
No, he claimed the right of placing whom he would 
in the Papal chair, and looked upon this right, as 
we said before, as a natural appendage of the im- 
perial power. Against any such assumption of power 
on the part of the temporal ruler, the whole history 
of the Church protested. There was no precedent 
for it, save what the late bloody factions of the 
Roman nobility afforded. The latter would in all 
likelihood have continued to exercise such power 
over the Papacy still, had not Otto resolved to have 
a voice too in such an important matter. And Otto 
had the means of making his voice heard and 
his word prevail. In his new pretensions, he was 
merely substituting his command in this regard, for 
that of some Roman faction. There is no denying, that 
with Otto, the Holy See fared better than it did, or 
ever would, fare at the hands of the reckless Roman 
nobility. These were devoid of all principle. They 
10 



146 EOME AND THE POPES. 

sought only their own interests. Nevertheless, Ot- 
to's principle was pregnant with more dangerous 
consecpiences to the Church than were the vile fac- 
tions of Rome. Very probably the Kaiser had the 
Byzantine empire in his mind at the time, and be- 
lieved that he, as emperor of the "West, ought to be 
there allowed to exercise the same control over ec- 
clesiastical matters, that the emperor of the East 
exercised throughout his dominions. 

It was necessary for Otto's plans, that the head 
of the Church should enter into, and further, his 
great political views. Besides he was master of 
Italy. He had caried off the Subalpine monarch 
Berengarius prisoner and deposed John XII. To 
counteract the aversion of the Romans to the Ger- 
mans, he wanted a Pope who would favor his own 
Germanizing policy. He should have one who would 
understand the imperial interests as they were un- 
derstood by himself. Still it must be regarded as a 
great step in the right direction that the Papacy was 
extricated from the Roman factions. Worthy and 
competent men could be, and were now elected. In 
a word, Otto extorted from the Romans complete 
submission in all things to the imperial rule. They 
had not only to forego all voice in the election of the 
Pontiff but had also to swear allegiance to Otto's 
government. As long as the German power in Italy 
lasted, they were compelled to do the same by each 
of his successors. But a wrong — a most pernicious 
principle was involved in the Kaiser's pretensions. 
No man, no power on earth can be admitted to hold 
the exclusive right of nominating to the See of Peter. 



HOME AND THE POPES. 147 

The attempt to enforce that principle failed. Like 
all other attempts of the kind it defeated itself. The 
principle has been tried at the bar of history, and a 
verdict against it returned. It could not. pass. It 
was acted on for the last time in 1050 by the em- 
peror Henry III. From that time on, the spirit ol 
ecclesiastical independence began to wax stronger, 
and both powers — the spiritual and the temporal — 
entered each upon a new path more behtting their 
respective aims and attributes. 



V. 

ITALIAN NATIONALITY. 

Let us now turn our thoughts a moment from 
these heart-sickening reflections on the condition of 
the "Eternal City," to some considerations of a 
more general character. 

Different nations as different individuals have 
their own endowments. One has this, another that. 
The man who would learn anything from .history be- 
yond bare names, and dates, and square miles, should 
not fail to take into account the peculiar character- 
istics of each people. By so doing, he will discover 
that the interests of one nation are not necessari- 
ly those of another, and that events in one coun- 
try, are frequently to be regarded in a different 
light from what similar events should be in another. 
He will find, too, that a nation's best interests are 
consulted, when its political form or institutions are 
allowed to grow up and develop themselves in 
accordance with the genius and characteristics 
of the people, not when the people are vio- 
lently forced to accept this or that idea. We have 
no hesitation in saying Chat Italy, like Switzerland, 
is a. land that can never thrive under one general 
government. Nay, of the two, we should say that 
the attempt to bring the Swiss under one rule would 
be more successful than it would be with the Ital- 
ians. The different parts of Italy are as different as 

148 



JROME AND THE TOPES. 149 

can be from each other. They are different in ap- 
pearance, in climate, in products. Italy along the 
coasts is nothing- like the Italy of the interior. 
Again, the inhabitants of the different provinces of 
this country naturally so diversified, are, and have 
been, since the twilight of history as unlike each 
other as the soils they dwell on. It was so be- 
fore the rise of Rome, it continued so during the 
Republic, and was left so when the empire passed 
away. The successive invasions from the North, 
left behind a great many of the German ele- 
ments on Italian soil. Many of the Northern tribes 
only swept like a hurricane over the land, but set- 
tlements more or less permanent were made by the 
Heruli, the Ostrogoths, the Lombards, the Saracens, 
and the Franco-Normans. Hence arose an admix- 
ture of several different peoples, and for a consider- 
able time the foreign element was the more prevail- 
ing. In whole districts sometimes, nothing but 
German, or Greek, or Arabic, was spoken. This ad- 
mixture did not take place, or at least, only to a very 
small extent in Rome itself, or in the States of the 
Church. It was from this reservoir that the Italian 
element spread again and finally absorbed all others. 
The foreign tongues grew obsolete by degrees, and 
laws, moulded after the Roman code, were sub- 
stituted for the more imperfect and confused juris- 
prudence of the foreign settlements. The character 
of the Italians is naturally what might be expected 
from such a state of things. Individuality is there 
nmch more easily developed than elsewhere, and is 
entitled to far higher consideration. An Italian of 



150 ROME AND THE POPES. 

the most ordinary condition of life, feels that he is 
flee from want. The little that he needs is sup- 
plied, and abundantly supplied, by the generous 
soil. In ease and leisure he cultivates his tastes and 
improves his mind. That gross ignorance to which 
an over-measure of manual and bodily labor dooms 
so many of the people in Germany, France and 
England, is not met with in Italy. The Italian, 
taken in himself, is really a respectable individual. 
Man for man, you would go through a thousand of 
his class in Northern Europe, be they laborers, 
tradesmen, scholars or soldiers, before you would 
find one so well qualified to enjoy and to appreciate 
the pleasures of the mind and the imagination, or 
move and dress with such an air of grace and easy 
dignity as appears natural to the Italian. Neverthe- 
less, though strange, if you will, it is incontestable, 
that in Italy, where the intellectual and physical 
development of the individual is so superior, the 
body-politic wears the contrary aspect. The polished, 
ease-loving Italian could develop only the municipal 
system of government. It is the only one that bears 
on his own every day life and habits. It is on this 
account, that in very small states of Italy which 
grew up in accordance with the natural bent of the 
local inhabitants, whether into a monarchial or re- 
publican form of government, we not unfrequently 
find, art and social refinement to have reached the 
very highest degree of perfection. But we have 
never seen, and never shall see, any large, compact, 
uniform state arise in the country. The artful and 
violent measures now taken to create such a state, 



ROME AND THE POPES. 151 

are as foreign and unnatural to the Italian turn of 
toind as they are novel in Italian history. 

With such manifold differences of soil and peo- 
ple, it may seem strange to speak of the Italian na- 
tion or Italian nationality. Nevertheless, there al- 
ways was, and still is such a thing. That nationality 
is sharply defined, too, and possesses characteristics 
which other less gifted nations may well envy. Let 
us only take care not to look for this nationality in 
the wrong place. To understand, if not even to rec- 
ognize it, we should ourselves have a taste for in- 
tellectual grandeur and the beautifid in art. We 
should also learn to appreciate Italian genius taken 
in itself, even when in other respects it is sad- 
dled with many defects and infirmities. The 
populace of that whole country from Venice to 
Naples in which the beautiful in art is studied and 
admired, and the amenities of social life are so 
highly cultivated, forms one grand intellectual na- 
tionality. This is the genuine and only real Italian 
nationality that exists now, or ever did exist. Tho 
groundwork of this glorious nationality was the full 
and free development of the different parts of the 
country according to their local tastes and habits. 
Had Mantua, Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Alessandria, 
Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Sienna, Florence or Naples 
been never more than little, provincial towns of an 
extensive, centralized Italian kingdom, modern 
history would have little reason to dwell on them 
with pleasure as lights of science and literature. 
But fortunately for themselves and the world, each 
one of these cities was once a free and independent 



152 ROME AND THE POPES. 

repiiblic. Then, too, was each of tliem the centre 
of a nourishing trade and wide coinmei'ce, and the 
industry of the citizens only kept pace with their 
progress in the fine arts and all manner of intel- 
lectual attainments. In these little states, the high- 
est political principles were evolved and applied in 
practice, while the larger kingdoms of the period 
had hardly yet learned the elements of political 
science. Each city was a sovereign power, sui juris, 
and lived its own peculiar life. Thus was engen- 
dered in the citizens that strong love of freedom. 
They were ready to defend their rights and liberties 
against all and every opponent. They resisted the 
powerful and high-handed Kaiser Barbarossa, to the 
last, and, in reveDge, Frederic at the point of the 
sword, made these little Italian republics sorely feel 
the weight of his imperial power. 

The political unity which fortunately for herself, 
Italy did not possess at that time, was richly com- 
pensated for by her religious unity. Many a time, 
her spiritual chief was found at the head of a com- 
bination of these little allies, in support of Italian 
independence. The Pope headed the Lombard al- 
liance against Frederic. He opposed might and 
main the short-sighted despotism of Barbarossa, 
who would fain level and amalgamate all things to 
suit his own narrow views, and thereby destroy the 
noble and rich peculiarities of these little, indepen- 
dent communities. In this genuine Italian effort, as 
in defence of every national right and liberty of the 
country, the Popes invariably led the way for the 
many other eminent patriots. And so is it, even to 



ROME AND THE POPES. 153 

this day. For, surely Pius IX. leaving all else aside, 
is a better, a truer Italian (pardon tHe comparison) 
than that half-barbarian who calls himself king of 
Italy. One should certainly have very little brains 
to allow himself to be misled by the affected pa- 
triotism of our days. He must be very ignorant on 
the subject of European history, who can fail to rec- 
ognize the proper sphere of the Italians, and what 
it is that conduces to the greatness and glory of 
Italy. And, reading the lesson of the past, none but 
a narrow-minded bigot or a man of perverted con- 
science, could deny that the Popes are the proper, 
the only persons to extend that sjmere, and be the 
guardians of the real, the genuine nationality of 
Italy. And so we see in that small portion of this 
lovely land — the States of the Church — that the 
different provinces were united and strong in the 
Popes, and, through the Popes, they were free. The 
provinces with their municipal rights, enjoyed the 
utmost freedom. Indeed, in some cases, it amount- 
ed to almost complete independence. Let those 
who revile the Papal government, look into "the 
Roman municipal regulations of 1850. Either these 
men talk of what they know not, or there is not a 
particle of principle or of honor left them. A Ger- 
man, or Frenchman, who even in his very house is 
subject to an annoying government interference, 
may pride himself indeed that he has a voice in the 
politics of the nation. A genuine Italian would 
think such empty bauble a very poor indemnity for 
the loss of his municipal importance and freedom. 
The peculiarities of his character require the most 



154 ROME AND THE POPES. 

perfect liberty of action as to all that lies immediate- 
ly around him. The new-fangled kingdom of Italy 
is not yet quite centralized. It never will be, it 
never can be, until it has stamped out tlie national 
character, — this genuine Italian nationality. This 
unity without uniformity is factitious. It is un- 
Italian. It wont work. The different Italian castes 
can never be forced under one ruler and one system. 
Notwithstanding, the political fever with which they 
now burn, the Italians love their personal and 
municipal liberties. Th .> cling to their traditional 
customs and peculiarities. These are much dearer 
to the individual, than national unity. An alliance 
between the several Italian states might serve all 
interests: unity will not. The imposts of blood and 
treasure which they are called on to meet, will soon 
give the Italians enough of their new unity, to say 
nothing of the huge swindle going on in the new 
capital of Italy. 

The Romans, in whom the national character- 
istics are most *leeply impressed, have, at times, 
given excessive way to their passion for individual 
and communal liberty. Sometimes, too, they violent- 
ly strove co carry out their principles throughout the 
whole of the Papal States. Not unfrequently were 
these movements set down to revolutionary credit 
and dissatisfaction with the government by those 
who hate and oppose, on all occasions, the sacred 
ruler of City and States. 



VI. 
THE VATICAN AND THE CAPITOL. 

The unlimited moral power which Rome, even 
in the melancholy times, still exercised over the 
young nations of Europe, shows itself in many 
touching examples. Canute, the Danish king and 
conqueror of England, went on a pilgrimage to 
Rome. It was during the reign of Conrad II. The 
city was at the time the theatre of the wild brawls 
and bloody encounters of the factious Roman nobil- 
ity. They quarrelled among themselves, and quarrel- 
led unceasingly with the rough Germans who were 
now in Rome. In a beautiful letter which has reached 
our time, Canute writing from Rome to the English 
people, speaks ol the happiness it gave him to 
venerate all the shrines and relics of the city. He 
tells them how he had prayed God to grant him 
wisdom to govern henceforth well, that the sins and 
short-comings of his youth may be expiated by the 
piety of his declining years. Such the impression 
the " Eternal City" made on foreigners, even in those 
days, when the Romans themselves were, alas, so 
far removed from that ideal height to which they 
were called in virtue of their historical relation to 
Christianity. 

But, henceforward we are never again to see a fac- 
tion Pope or an imperial one occupying the Holy 

155 



156 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Chair. The freedom of the Papal elections is estab- 
lished. The choice for the future is to be ex- 
clusively, as well as conclusively, made by the illus- 
trious college of Cardinals. The history of the city, 
however, and that of St. Peter's successor, separate 
wider from each other, than ever they were before. 
The Papacy came to be more and more recognized 
as the tribunal of Europe. The narrow municipal 
spirit of the Romans, on the contrary, was every 
day growing more petty and less capable of compre- 
hending the intellectual and moral superiority to 
which their city, as the see of St. Peter, was called. 
From this time forward, we see the Romans be- 
coming perfectly demented on the subject of old 
memories and glories. The S. P. Q. R. Senate and 
People of Rome appear in all the official documents 
of the city. Rome, with her senate, what would she 
be? Nothing more than an obscure provincial city. 
Yet the Romans were so senseless and crazy on the 
idea, that the ablest Popes, as Gregory VII. arid In- 
nocent III., were forced to seek temporary shelter 
elsewhere. 

As sovereign of Rome and the States of the 
Church, the Pope's political independence was 
theoretically secured. But for a long time, his 
tenure of these states was anything but secure. The 
7\ user was the Papal advowee. His protection was 
often rather injurious and damaging to the Church 
than otherwise. On that ground, he sought to med- 
dle in all matters and frequently obstructed the action 
of the Popes. It took centuries of strife and toil, ere 
the complete independence of the Pope was estab- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 157 

lished. This was not until it was guaranteed by 
the European powers and recognized in the law of 
nations. 

The Papal rule was so very, very mild in his 
States, that the several little cities scarcely felt it at 
all. They enjoyed almost absolute independence. 
At Rome, the lay lords filled all the government 
offices. Though the Pope or his representative av;is 
chief of the administration, this seemed often only 
a nominal thing. Since the right of choosing the 
Pope, which had been so long and so disgracefully 
abused, was taken altogether out of the hands of 
the nobility, they held most tenaciously to the right 
of choosing their own city officials. The olden 
glories of Pome are trumped up oftener than ever. 
The titles of senator, consul, pro-consul, and the 
like, appear in the official lists. When a Roman was 
appointed governor of a little department or neigh- 
boring town, he is "Pro-consul." In Rome, we 
have the "Patres Comcrijjti." The assemblies of the 
nobles which were held in an ancient circus or hip- 
podrome were called, "Sessions of the Senate." 
The fever about the olden Republic grew hotter and 
hotter, 'till at length it led to the proclamation of 
that fantastic republic of which we shall presently 
speak. 

The Popes at this period took up their perma- 
nent abode in the Vatican. On this site Eugenius 
III., Celestin III., Innocent III., and Nicholas III., 
had erected magnificent palaces and laid out splen- 
did gardens. But the Popes were frequently driven 
from . their^ homes by . the republicanizing Romans, 



158 EOME AND THE POPES. 

and wandered, homeless fugitives, from one town to 
another, while the Christian world listened with 
reverence and attention to the words that fell from 
their lips. They generally found shelter in one or 
other of the towns of the Papal States, Anagni, Vi- 
terbo or Rieti. But there were times when they 
were obliged to betake themselves to a foreign ter- 
ritory altogether, till the stoi-m had blown over. It 
was then said of the Pope : Pulsus ah Urbe, ab Orbe 
recipitur, — "driven from the city, he is welcomed by 
the world." It went so far that a formal war was 
sometimes waged between the " Romans" and the 
" Papists" or Papal party. This happened in 1235. 
The Romans were defeated before Viterbo. Hostil- 
ities continued, however, and an edict was issued 
declaring that the Pope was forever banished from 
Rome -nless he came to their terms. 

Conditions of peace were at length mutually 
agreed upon. The document in which they were 
drawn up, will give us a good idea of the city gov- 
ernment. "We transcribe the following: — "We, by 
the grace of God, noble citizens of the illustrious 
City, promise as the plenipotentiaries of the illus- 
trious senate, and by command, and with, the ap- 
probation of the renowed Roman commons who as- 
sembled on the Capitol at the sound of bells and 
trumpets, .... that we, in obedience to the Pope's 
orders, are willing to make rejDaration .... that we 
withdraw, ' on the authority of the Senate and the 
people, the acts of proscription and the edicts that 
have been issued. Further, to remove all cause of 
dissension between us and the Church and the Pope, 



ROME AND THE POPES. 159 

•whom, through reverence for Christ, Whose vicar he 
is, and the Prince of the Apostles, whose successor 
he is, we respect as pious children, as also, because 
it is conducive to the honor of this illustrious and 
renowned City, we hereby deree: that ecclesiastical 
persons in, or outside Rome, or the families of the 
Popes and Cardinals, shall not be brought before 
the civil courts nor shall they be driven thereto by 
the undermining of their houses, nor in any other 
way .... We give eternal peace to the Emperor and 
to his vassals, the citizens of Anagni, Viterbo, Vel- 
letri, Segni .... and to all others of the Patrimony, 
and all friends of the Church, etc." 

Sometimes the Popes remained a considerable 
time out of Pome. They grew sick of dealing with 
the rebellious citizens. On such occasions, the Ro- 
mans were sure to wish him bach. Threats and en- 
treaties would be used to induce him to return. The 
Romans would then argue: — the Pope is not bishop 
of Anagni, or Perugia, or Lyons, but of Rome. They, 
at one time, threatened to make war upon the in- 
habitants of Perugia, if they would not compel the 
Pope, who had taken refuge with them, to return to 
Rome. This happened under Innocent IV. Nicho- 
las III. was a man of steel. He held Rome well 
under, and ruled with a firm hand. Nicholas' pre- 
decessors, even under the most adverse circumstan- 
ces, were always the boldest and most persevering 
advocates of national independence. They resisted 
to the last, the powerful Hohenstaufen emperors. 
Gregory IX. manfully held out against that invete- 
rate foe of all civil liberty or municipal indepen- 



±1>U EOME AND THE POPES. 

dence. Frederic II. Once Frederic with a large 
army lay before the walls of Eome. Some parties 
who were within the walls, but devoted to the im- 
perial interests, cried out: — "The kaiser, the kaiser 
is there himself, we must give up the city." Gre- 
gory heard it. He ordered a solemn procession 
with the relics of the Holy Cross, and the heads of 
the Apostles Peter and Paul. Arrived at St. Peters, 
the relics were deposited on the high altar. The 
Pope lifted the tiara from his head, and laid it on 
the relics. He then turned to the people and said: 
" Your Saints will defend this Eome which you Ro- 
mans are ready to sacrifice." The traitors were 
gained over. The kaiser who counted on co-opera- 
tion from within failed to take the city. He had to 
withdraw towards Apulia. In a letter to the Ro- 
mans from this place, he manifests his chagrin. "It 
pains us," he writes in the old bombastic style, 
" that of the many thousands of the old stock of 
Romulus, both nobles and quirites, not a single man 
was found courageous enough to declare for us." 
This choice defender of the Church then goes on to 
urge the Romans, under pain of incurring his high- 
est displeasure, to revolt against the Pope. 

The Senate-Chamber, the seat of the Republic, 
stood on the Capitol near the Tarpean rock. There 
the senators assembled. The city council held their 
sessions in a neighboring and much better looking 
building, a Franciscan monastery, erected on the 
site of the ancient palace of Octavian. This Roman 
senate-chamber had nothing to recommend it, save 
its big name, and the circumstance that it stood on 



BOME AND THE POPES. 1G1 

the ruins of noble reminiscences. It was a half- 
ancient, half-modern structure that seemed us much 
out of place, as the senators who occupied it. These 
pigmy officials dated their little city ordinances from 
the Capitol, while decrees foi the government of the 
world were issued from the neighboring Vatican. 
And such were the Lilluputian republicans who 
more than once rose in arms against the spiritual 
lord of Christendom. 



VII. 

THE POPES AT AVIGNON. 

The elevation of the house of Anjou to the 
throne of Sicily, was an important event in the 
history of Rome and the Papacy. Two brothers 
could scarcely be more unlike than St. Louis of 
France, and his brother, Charles of Anjou. When 
the Pope had to make choice of a sovereign for the 
vacant throne of Sicily, Charles was the man select- 
ed. It is one of the most extraordinary phenomena 
of history, that the Popes who can never be de- 
ceived in deciding on questions of faith or morals, 
should sometimes seem to be the easiest of dupes in 
other matters. In Charles, the Pope reposed the 
most unbounded confidence. Yet by him were the 
temporal possessions of the Church brought into 
the greatest jeopardy, and almost entirely lost. It 
was the grossest blunder on the part of the Pope 
to confer the crown of Sicily, on such an unprin- 
cipled and ambitious prince. True, France had in 
former times done more for the independence of 
the Papacy than any other nation of Christendom. 
Therefore we need not wonder that the Tope, find- 
ing in the Kaiser but a sorry reed to lean upon, 
turned to the house of Capet. Besides, at the very 
period in question, the house of Capet could well 

1G2 



ROME AND THE POPES. 1G3 

pride itself on the virtues of the saintly Crusader. 
Accordingly, when the crown of Naples was for- 
feited by its German possessor for the crime of 
treason, it was conferred on the French prince, 
Charles of Anjou. But no sooner was Anjou named 
king of Naples, than French influence in all Roman 
affairs was felt to be omnipotent. French Popes 
were elected, French cardinals were created, and 
Popes and cardinals did all they could to further 
French influence in ecclesiastico-political matters. 
Frenchmen were appointed governors of provinces 
throughout the Papal States. Martin IV., a French- 
man, created Charles a Roman senator. And now 
this Franco-Roman senator assumed the perform- 
ance of the civil functions of the Pope who no 
longer resided in Rome. The relations of the Pope 
with the inhabitants of his states were broken off. 
The Papacy after a while became the exclusive 
property of the French nation. To these French 
Popes, Italy was a foreign country. They preferred 
to dwell on their own soil. The removal of the 
Papal court altogether to Avignon was the conse- 
quence. Here it remained for the space of seventy 
years. At Avignon, a new and a fearful trial awaited 
the Papacy. The Popes were, or at least seemed to 
be, held prisoners in the hands of St. Louis' grand- 
son. The circumstances which first drove the Popes 
into France, might perhaps be traced to the hostil- 
ity of the German emperors. But the residence at 
Avignon entailed unquestionably far greater evils 
on the Church tliaai all the molestations of the 
Kaiser. 



164 . ROME AND THE POPES. 

The States of the Church now lost all their 
significance. They were considered at Avignon and 
dealt with merely as a distant province deserving of 
no great attention and to be managed by a vice- 
gerent. As to the far-off city of Rome, in which the 
Popes, while they clung to it, could never feel free, 
the French resident at Avignon troubled himself 
very little. 

In the year 1300, was written one bright and 
glorious page of Roman story. It was just before 
the removal of the Papal court to Avignon. Pope 
Boniface VIII. announced the great centenary 
jubilee. Countless throngs of pilgrims (the Romans 
say two millions) visited the Holy City that yeai\ 
Day after day, Rome saw a new crowd arrive. 
The Canrpagna, as well as the city itself, resounded 
with the hymns and sacred songs of the pilgrims. 
They spoke in many different tongues, but they 
sang their hymns and psalms in the common lan- 
guage of the Church. The ardent longings of all 
those pilgrims from many lands, were directed to 
the self-same spot, and, as the sun-lit view of that 
forest of spires in the "Eternal City" broke upon 
their sight in the distance, they would cry out in 
exultation, "Roma! Roma!" like sailors at sight of 
land, after a weary voyage. At the gates, they were 
received by persons employed for the purpose and 
conducted to their respective inns, or, as was more 
generally the case, taken first all together to St. 
Peter's to pray at the tomb of the Apostles. 

Those pilgrims having satisfied their devotional 
feelings turned their astonished gaze on the nionu- 



ROME AND THE POPES. ' 1G5 

ments of the city. In this classical spot, lived the 
noblest reminiscences of antiquity. Here, too, stood 
the noblest monuments of Christianity. These 
monuments majestically proclaimed the high destiny 
of Home, of which they were themselves at once the 
proof and the expression. All these pilgrims as- 
sembled in the world's great temple of the New 
Dispensation. The august mysteries of the redemp- 
tion were celebrated before them. It was the jubilee 
year of the New Covenant. The strangers saw the 
successor of St. Peter in all his sublime majesty. 
They knelt in reverential awe to receive the solemn 
blessing which was given by Christ's vice-gerent on 
earth to the City and to the world freni the Loggie 
which Pope Boniface had erected expressly for the 
occasion. 

The jubilee closed on Christmas night 1300. The 
Pope announced the closing, and again gave his 
benediction to the home-returning pilgrims. This 
year, 1300, is a great epoch in the history of Rome 
and the Papacy. This year of joy and festivity was 
soon followed by sorrows. Boniface underwent his 
tragical sufferings and death; his successors were in 
exile at Avignon ; and the city saw a long and cheer- 
less day of desolation and desertion. 



vm. 

THE GHOST OF ANCIENT PAGANISM IN 
THE RUINS OF ROME. 

"When the Papal Court was transferred to Avig- 
non, Rome appeared like a corpse from which the 
vital breath had departed. For a short while indeed 
the body still retains the appearance of life, but it 
soon falls into dust if not cpiickened again by the 
Lord of life. 

The soul of Rome was the Pope. He had now 
left her. True, it was to his own great detriment as 
well as hers. But Rome had too frequently forced 
him to drink deep of the cup of bitterness. The 
Pope's influence on the city from his distant home, 
could be only very little, if any at all. It was only 
when some extraordinary circumstance turned up, 
that Rome would show any signs of life, and even 
that, but for a moment during this period. 

In the second year of the Avignon exile, in May 
1308, the Romans were suddenly startled by the cry 
of "fire" through the city. The Lateran Basilica 
was in flames. Spite of all that could be done, 
this, the mother Church of Christendom was fear- 
fully wasted. The fire was regarded as a just visita- 
tion of God in punishment of the city's sins. To 
this succeeded earthcpiakes and devouiing plagues. 
Of these we have some meagre accounts, and then 

1G6 



ROME AND THE POPES. 1G7 

all is still .again in Roman history. Eome sinks back 
into obscurity and is only casually heard of on oc- 
casions of quarrels between princes or noble houses. 
The city is gradually dying away. No man's life or 
property, especially if a stranger, is safe within her 
walls. The Pope, indeed, sent legates to the city to 
see to the reparation of the Basilica, as well as to 
the restoration of order. But the former only was 
effected. Legates were also sent from Avignon to 
the ill-omened coronation of the Kaiser this year. 
The history of Rome all this time is merely the 
lifeless, uninteresting story of a little provincial 
town. The king of Naples is vice-gerent of the 
Pope. He keeps his own vice-gerent again in Rome. 
The one and the other lets the city go piecemeal to 
the dust. The Romans felt how fallen was their 
condition during the years 1330-35. They sent re- 
peated embassies to the Pope earnestly praying his 
return. They solemnly renounced all those rights 
they had been quarreling for, or had wrested, in the 
course of time, from the Church. The Pope prom- 
ised to come. He had the Vatican ami its gardens 
set in order. But the king of France refused to al- 
low his return. Robert, king of Naples, was ap- 
pointed vice-gerent again. Everything was going to 
wreck and ruin in the city. The untenanted palaces, 
were mouldering to decay. The churches were ill- 
cared for and deserted. The city walls were crum- 
bling down on all sides. The Romans themselves 
carried on a base traffic with the monumental and 
artistic ruins of their city. Marble columns, church 
sills, and other cut-stone work, such as tombstones 



168 ROME AND THE POPES. 

and the like, were carried off and sold for a trifle 
in Naples. Petrarch tells us how indignant he was 
to witness this. His indignation is just what an old 
Roman in the days of Augustus would have felt at 
the sight. The poet calls on the Pope to have pity- 
on the dying city of the Tiber. He compares Rome 
to an aged matron with gray hair, wasted counten- 
ance, and tattered garments, yet with lofty mien and a 
noble pride derived from the glorious reminiscences 
of her youth. 

During this period Rome is but the bloody thea- 
tre of the ignoble faction fights between the Orsini 
and the Colonna. "Wherever any of the opposite 
parties chanced to meet, there weapons were drawn 
and blood spilled. Murder followed murder, and 
by new murders were these again revenged. "I 
know not," says Petrarch, " for what evil deed of 
this people, or by what decree of heaven, or by 
what fate, or by what power of the stars it is, that 
peace is banished from this place. The shepherd 
goes forth armed, to defend his flock not from wolves 
but from robbers. The husbandman is clad in armor 
and drives his oxen not with the switch but with 
the lance. There is here no safety, no rest, no 
humanity. All breathes of war and hate, and the 
deeds that are daily done are such as one might 
expect of the spirits of darkness." The tone run- 
ning through these letters of the poet, shows the co- 
existence or rather the permeation of the two ideas 
in Rome, — the Christian and the heathen. The 
heathen idea was kept under but never uprooted by 
Christianity. It waxed strong at this period and 



HOME AND THE POPES. 1G9 

for a time prevailed over the Christian in the minds 
of men. This is the explanation of the follies that 
ensued. 

We have already remarked that all through the 
middle ages some indistinct reminiscences of ancient 
paganism acted with more or less influence on the 
political ideas of the Komans. They were now in a 
perfect fever on the subject. Theirs was not that en- 
thusiasm that inspired the ablest and best men of 
this and the following age with a love of classical 
antiquity. It was a childish silliness that found vent 
in empty declamation about the heroism of the 
Romans, the triumphs of the Capitol, the Senate 
and the Republic. The chief movers in this farce 
were men of no learning or ability, but demagogues 
who could inflame the populace by their stirring and 
pompous, though commonplace harangues. The 
mass of the people who had everything to lose and 
nothing to gain by the quarrels of the nobility, 
seized eagerly on this idea of the Republic. A re- 
public would free them from the oppression of the 
nobles, make them their own proper rulers, and what 
not ? In Cola di • Rienzi, a man taken from their 
midst was found the very person fitted to carry out 
their ideas. Cola appeared in Rome unexpected- 
ly as a meteor, and, like a meteor, disappeared again. 
But that he arose at all, is a remarkable sign of the 
times. Rome felt she owed all she was to the Popes. 
Impatient at this, she wished to be something of 
herself, and at the same time not to do without the 
spiritual chief of Christendom who was hers by reason 
of her supernatural destiny. It was a wild endeavor. 



170 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Eome created to herself a phantom. The thing ap- 
peared for a moment on the stage as the ghost of 
ancient Eome, furiously declaiming and gesticulat- 
ing. It threatened to overthrow everything in the 
city and throughout all Italy. It took men so by 
surprise, they believed it real. Even outside of 
Italy, its fantastic movements turned some of the 
best heads. But it soon appeared that it was all 
a mockery, a vision of the brain. The windy ma- 
chine swelled and swelled and swelled, and then 
burst and disappeared as a soap-bubble. 

Cola di Rienzi, the son of a tavern-keeper in the 
city, had found an opportunity to learn a little La- 
tin. He read Livy, Sallust and Valerius Maximus. 
Of an ardent and enthusiastic turn of mind, tho 
young man fancied Rome ought to be in his day, 
what she was in the times described by those 
writers. "Where are those heroic Romans?" he 
would often cry, "Oh ! that I could see such days in 
Rome again!" Cola's brother mingled in those 
tumults that were then so common in Rome. He 
was murdered in a fray. Cola sought to bring the 
murderer to justice, but failed. . This embittered 
Rienzi against the existing state of things in Rome. 
He became a notary public and was one of an em- 
bassy sent in 1344 to Clement VI. to persuade him 
to return to Rome. Rienzi was spokesman on the 
occasion. He denounced the Roman nobility in 
violent temis. He accused them of being the cause 
of all the miseries of Rome, and laid to their account 
the insecurity of life in the city. He went on in 
fiery language to denounce them to the Pope as 



ROME AND THE POPES. 171 

guilty of all the evil deeds that were daily committed 
in Rome. "The city," he said, "was a scene of hope- 
less desolation, and it was the nobles made it so." 
The Pope listened with gracious attention to his 
words, and dismissed the embassy with the most en- 
couraging assurances. On his return to the city, 
Cola began at once to work the Romans up and fire 
them with his own ideas. On the nobility, he could 
have no influence. By them he was simply de- 
spised, lie caused a large painting to be made re- 
presenting a ship caught in a storm at sea. The 
vessel was seen tossing in the tremendous waves and 
driven in hopeless plight without mast or rudder 
before the 'fury of the tempest. Aboard this ship is 
a weeping female, clad in widow's weeds, with hair 
dishevelled and tossing loosely to the winds. Over 
the figure of this female were the words: "Such is 
Rome." This picture Rienzi had hung up on the 
walls of the senate house. In the churches, on the 
streets, on the public squares, Cola delivered glow- 
ing speeches. He dwelt on the fallen fortunes of the 
city and recounted the glories of yore. The barons 
at first looked on the whole as a harmless farce. 
They amused themselves listening to the ready and 
eloquent speaker. But soon another tale was told. 
The commoner whom they derided, Cola di Rienzi, 
was suddenly become lord and master of Rome. 
The secret of Cola's power was the lively and keen 
sense he had of # the sad condition of affairs, and 
his honest and enthusiastic wish to apply a remedy. 
But how to mend matters was the question. Cola fan- 
cied it could best be done, by adopting that form of 



172 ROME AND THE POPES. 

republican government which existed in Rome at 
the heyday of its power, and of which he had read 
in the classic authors. But even his knowledge of 
republican institutions as of classical literature in 
general, was only very meagre. From what he had 
read of the quarrels between the people and the 
patricians, he seized on the idea of a popular tri- 
bune. To stand as such at the head of a new Roman 
Republic, was the ambition of Rienzi. This was the 
end he had in view and towards its attainment, 
every nerve was strained. This revolution of Rienzi 
took the fantastic shape it did, owing to the strange 
admixture of ancient and modern ideas by which it 
was produced. 



IX. 

BOME A EEPUBLIC. 

Rienzi wielded an immense influence over the 
populace. On Whitsunday, 1347, he called a meet-i 
ing of the citizens on the Capitol. There, he was to 
publish the fundamental laws of the new Republic. 
Between midnight and niornirig he assisted at thirty 
votive masses of the Holy Ghost. He then marched 
bareheaded out of the church, preceded by three 
banners carried in solemn procession. On the first, 
which was of red velvet trimmed with gold, was a 
figure of Rome seated on a chair supported by two 
lions. The figure held in one hand a terrestrial 
globe, in the other, the palm of victory. The second 
was white. On this was represented St. Paul bear- 
ing the sword and having on his head the crown of 
justice. On the third banner was Peter, holding the 
two keys, to which Rienzi attached the signification 
of peace and harmony. ' From the high steps of the 
Capitol, Cola addressed the thousands below. He 
explained the principles of the new Republic, 
wherein the security of the citizens against the 
tyranny of the nobility was particularly provided 
for. The people received his j>ropositions with the 
wildest enthusiasm. That he might more effectually 
carry the new system into operation, they clothed 

173 



174 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Bienzi with dictatorial powers. His official title was 
Tribune and Saviour of Home. 

The news of these proceedings at first spread 
alarm in the court at Avignon. But the arrival of 
an embassy from the city on the part of Bienzi, al- 
layed all uneasiness. The awakening passion for 
the study of classical antiquity at the time was 
such that Rienzi really found a great many mis- 
taken admirers among the educated classes. In- 
fluenced by this current opinion, the Pope actually 
nominated the Tribune governor of Borne. How 
entirely, even men of note misunderstood the trans- 
actions at Borne is evident from the writings of 
Petrarch. The poet was himself the great head of 
the classical revival. He grows enthusiastic over 
the new republican Borne. He already sees her, in 
spirit, queen of the universe once more. He hails 
the Tribune as a third Brutus, a Camillus, a second 
Bomulus. "Thou standest," he writes addressing 
Bienzi, "thou standest on a lofty watch tower, and 
thy fame is without limits to-day, and will endure 
forever." In the new Bepublic, he sees a thorough 
change in the state, the beginning of the golden 
era, another feature in the history of the world. 
With phrases chosen out of Livy the poet bids suc- 
cess to the renowned City of the Seven Hills. 

The Pope named a commission of four cardinals 
to see to tie restoration of public order in Borne. 
For though he let Bienzi go on, the city could not 
be governed by stilted phraseology drawn from the 
classics. Nor had Petrarch any more practical sense 
than the bombastic Tribune. He thought the pre- 



ROME AND THE POPES. 175 

latcs named by the Pope to see to Roman affairs, 
•wholly unfit for the task, owing to their deficiency 
in classical lore. He fancied it incumbent on him 
as a patriot, to direct them. He accordingly pub- 
lished two memorials. The maxims of policy pre- 
scribed therein are simply transcribed from Livy. 
The main question discussed is, whether nobles 
alone, or burghers also, should be elected to the 
highest offices in the state. "If you would remedy 
the evils of Rome," he writes, "you must set before 
your eyes the example of those times in which the 
city was raised from nothing to the very stars." 
They must hold on to the title of Roman Republic. 
With Petrarch no other name is greater or more 
glorious. The Roman populace of his day was no 
whit different from the "Populus Romanics" of Livy. 
The nobles are the "foreign tyrants." This nobility 
abused the long suffering of x the people and treated 
them as "Cimbrian or Carthaginian prisoners." At 
best, the nobility should be barely tolerated. For 
this opinion, he appeals to a decision of Manlius 
Torquatus. To the nobility of the Papal States, he 
then holds up as models for their imitation, Vale- 
rius Publicola, Cincinnatus, Fabricius and Curius. 
He then launches forth again in praise of the 
Roman people and extols them to the sides. "How 
or why should it be," he asks, " that such a people, 
once masters of the world, who from yonder Capitol 
defied the Senones, who beheld kings trailed to 
their cars of triumph, who listened to the prayers of 
ambassadors sent from foreign lands to propitiate 
them, who bent or broke the stiff necks of their own 



176 ROME AND THE POPES. 

ambitious fellow-citizens, — why," he enthusiastically 
demands, "should not such a people have a share in 
the government?" 

Petrarch in this, as in all else he wrote touching 
practical life, must be content with having his vivid 
imagination admired and his literary merits duly 
appreciated. It was not the airy imagination of the 
brilliant poet that could introduce into the States of 
the Church any good practical measures of govern- 
ment. For this was required the good strong com- 
mon sense of such men as Cardinal Albornoz. The 
Cardinal was as devoted to letters as Petrarch, but 
he was not the mere sentimental visionary which 
the poet was. 

The poor crazy man who announced the new 
Roman Republic to the world, used at first in all 
his official acts, to couple the name of the Pope's 
vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, with his own. But as 
fortune continued to smile brighter and brighter on 
him, he concluded after a while to set even this 
formality aside and act simply and solely as Tribune 
of Rome. 

His history, his haughty bearing that amounted 
almost to insanity, and his violent death, are all too 
well known to need any further mention here. Day 
by day, he became more and more venturesome. 
He assumed additional titles and honors, and he be- 
stowed, as something great, these silly distinctions 
on his demented followers. This was all the more 
ridiculous, as he had issued an order forbidding the 
use of the word ''sir" in speaking of any one save the 
Pope, to wit, that the Romans may acknowledge no 



ROME AND I'OPES. 177 

superior except the Lord and his Vicar on earth. 
He also prohibited by law the use of any armorial 
bearings by the nobility. No escutcheons were tole- 
rated save those of the Pope and the Roman people. 
Yet he himself assumed a coat of arms, bearing the 
ensigns of the two keys and the S. P. Q. P. Rienzi, 
in fact, was intoxicated with success. Seeing him- 
self raised to an eminence that overtopped his high- 
est hopes, he fancied his elevation was due not to 
circumstances, but to his own personal ability. He 
wished to have the whole drama of Koman story 
played over again, with this only exception, that 
one man — Cola di Rienzi — was always to be head of 
the Republic. The difficulty was, how or where, or 
in what capacity, to place himself, as such, in a re- 
public moulded after that of early Rome. 

Rienzi with his republic was to do a world of 
good. Under his government, the good should be 
protected and the wicked punished. Even and im- 
partial justice should be dealt out to all. The poor 
should be relieved and assistance given to the widow 
and the orphan. Sinners should be converted and 
brought into the bosom of the Church. All variance 
between husband and wife should cease, and family 
discord be no longer heard of. Such were some of 
the many blessings which the Tribune promised 
should flow from the new regime. Put by what 
means or measures he was to compass these glorious 
results, does not appear. Of these Cola gave the 
world no clue. Nor do we see Rienzi making a 
single, serious effort to realize his fair promises. 
Towards the end of his career, he seemed even wholly 



178 ROME AXD THE POPES. 

to lose sight of the noble purposes he once head 
in view. So completely did he get wrapt up in the 
silly vanity engendered by his ambition, that he for- 
got all else. He fell from his dizzy height, and the 
mighty Tribune was found to have been only a crazy, 
ranting school-boy. 

During the Avignon period, not only Rome, but 
every other part of the Papal States repeatedly 
strove either one by one, or all together, to throw 
off the rule of a foreign Pope. When the Pope 
was about to return, the States of the Church had 
to be formed anew. This task was achieved by 
that great statesman and general, Cardinal Albor- 
noz. A whole century however elapsed after the 
Pope's return to Pome, ere the Papal States in 
their full extent were admitted into the Euro- 
pean family of nations. The necessity of theee 
states to assure the freedom of the Holy Father was 
now better known than ever. It was admitted and 
proclaimed by the council of Basle. 



THE CITY WITHOUT THE POPE. 

The population fast dwindled away. It went as 
low as 17,000. Empty houses were everywhere top- 
pling down. Grass grew in the streets. Vegetables 
were planted in the Forum. Hogs and cattle were 
fed in another portion of the city which has since 
been known as the Cow-Field — Campo Vaccino. Be- 
sides the monastery we mentioned in a former chap- 
ter, the senate-house still stood on the Capitol. But 
it was so fallen to neglect that it was not even fit 
for a private family to dwell in. The rest of that 
hill whose name resounded through the world, was 
covered with bushes and briars. A number of goats 
usually ranged its sides picking their scanty food 
from the briars. The Capitol was hence called the 
Goat-Hill — Monte Caprino. 

In a petition addressed to Gregory XI. by the 
Roman citizens in the year 1376 they say: "Return, 
good father, for the appearance of this city, once so 
great, once so honored through the whole earth, is 
altered to that degree that no one could recognize 
in it the holy city and the capital of Christendom. 
Our most celebrated and holy temples, those monu- 
ments of the piety of the great Constantine in which 
the chief bishops of the Church, clothed in the robes 
of their dignity, took possession of the chair of the 

179 



180 ROME AND THE POPES. 

Apostles, stand now deserted, are left without re- 
spect or care, and threaten to crumble down com- 
pletely. The Cardinal's churches, those sacred 
spots in which repose the remains of so many holy 
martyrs, are deserted too by those who from them 
hold their titles and honors, and who are thereby 
pledged to see to their condition. The churches are 
all going entirely to wreck. The walls are broken 
in several places, and the windows and doors fallen 
in, so that cattle range through them and browse 
off the very sanctuary." 

Petrarch after his own fashion describes the 
same desolation and lays the fault at the door of 
the citizens themselves. The letter is addressed to 
Eienzi but intended for the public eye. "They (the 
nobility) for whom you have so often shed your 
blood, whom you have maintained with your own 
substance and raised to princely positions by deny- 
ing yourselves the pleasures of life, — these men do 
not deem you worthy of freedom. . . . Nor do they 
blush but rather boast openly of their crimes. They 
are not restrained by any feeling of tenderness and 
respect for their native land. Her holy temples, 
they plunder with godless rapacity, her garrisoned 
forts, they strip and demolish. Euthless wretches 
that they are, it would seem, they want to wreak 
their vengeance on the very brick and stone of the 
city. "When either by force or neglect those ancient 
palaces crumble down in which great men once 
dwelt, when those triumphal arches which were 
erected in their honor are demolished, these men do 
not hesitate to drive a reckless, disgraceful traffic on 



ROME AND THE TOPES. 181 

the ruins thereof and win base lucre from the deso- 
lation of the city. And now, oh! shame of all 
shames! those marble columns of yours and that 
rich stone-work of your churches around which 
people of all lands lately stood in wondering ad- 
miration, and the rich chiselled work and monu- 
ments erected to the dead 'neath which rest the 
honored ashes of your ancestors — to say nothing 
else, must go to ornament that murky Naples. Thus 
even the very ruins which might still witness so elo- 
quently to your ancient glories disappear. And you, 
in the face of these few robbers who pillage Borne 
as if it were an enemy's city, you are mute not only 
as slaves, but as if you were so many dumb beasts, 
while the garments of your common mother are so 
shamelessly torn away." 

This state of desolation continued during the 
whole of the period of the great schism. " You can 
turn in no direction," says an eye-witness, "without 
meeting some S}:>lendid relic of ancient art either 
stuck into a wall as a common worthless stone, or 
lying neglected in a gutter." The broken fragments 
of beautiful marble and porphyry columns lay scat- 
tered on the streets, and many of those that are now 
admired, were then set up as studs to support some 
wretched hovel or rudely constructed stable. An- 
other writer of the day complains: "We have to 
witness many things that sadden our sojourn in 
Rome. In several places we find only grape vines, 
where we formerly admired splendid palaces. Their 
highly wrought free-stone is now burned to make 
chalk." The youthful poet who was afterwards Pope 



182 KOME AND THE POPES. 

Pius II., bewails the same thing in verse, of which 
the following may be accepted as a translation: 

" Thy ruins, o Romp, to see, is indeed a pleasure to me ; 
In the relics of ancient days, thy former glory is writ ; 
But the beautiful stone from its place i.i the oidcn wall, 
Thy people doth burn to lime, and all for pitiful gain." 

Some of the ancient temples were actually toi'n 
down to serve as quarries, and others convert- 
ed into Lime-kilns. Such in particular was the 
case with the temple of Vespasian. The cut-stone 
work was used as door-posts, steps and foundation 
stones. Some, of delicate workmanship, was used as 
paling, and more of it might be met with converted 
into water-troughs. " Greater is Rome's desolation 
to-day," says Poggio, " than it was under the ter- 
rible Marios: more complete her destruction, than 
that of Carthage. No city ever witnessed such a 
reverse of fortune. The utter destruction that has 
come upon her has robbed her of all beauty and 
comeliness, and there she lies now on earth, a dis- 
figured and sightless ruin like the corpse of a once 
powerful giant." 

Ruins are, indeed, an old thing in Rome; older 
even than the city of Romulus. He built on the 
sevenfold ruins of the Septimontium, that is, on the 
ruins of the seven little cities that formerly capped 
each of the seven hills. The history of this queen 
city of the world begins with ruin as does the his- 
tory of the human race, and Rome could at all 
times exhibit not only the improvements of each 
century of her existence, but also the ruins of each 
of those centuries. But that scene of awful, woful 



ROME AND THE POPES. 183 

wreck, ruin and desolation that she now presented, 
was reserved for popeless Christian Home. It 
looked as if those words addressed to Saint Bene- 
dict were fulfilled: "Rome shall be shattered by 
thunder and lightning and tempest, and so sink in 
a mass of ruin." 

"We, in Germany, look on that period as the 
worst in our history, when Germany was without a 
kaiser. For the Romans it was when Rome was 
without a Pope. Later on we find Rome on three 
other occasions without the Pope. Under Pius VI., 
Rome was an appendage of the French Republic; 
under Pius VII., it was capital of a department of 
the Empire; and under Pius IX., it was a republic of 
Mazzinian assasins. 



XL 

THE ROMAN KEPUBLIC AT THE CLOSE OF 
THE XVIII. CENTUEY. 

On the 15th of February, 1798, a party of re- 
volutionists assembled in the Forum under the pro- 
tection of the French army. There, in presence of 
generals Murat and Cervini, three notaries had to 
draw up an instrument wherein it was announced 
that the rule of the Popes was forever at an end, 
and that the Romans thereupon claimed, as they 
were entitled to, the inalienable rights of man. The 
party then betook themselves to the Capitol with 
general Bertlyer as triumphator. The tree of free- 
dom was set up. Berthier, decorated with a laurel 
wreath, mounted the rostrum and said: "The sons 
of France are come with the olive of peace to raise 
Up these altars to freedom, the foundations of which 
Were laid by the first Brutus." French commission- 
ers then gave the new Roman Republic, a constitu- 
tion moulded upon that of France. The French 
titles were translated into those of the ancient 
Roman Republic. The Council of Ancients was 
called the Senate, and they had Tribunes, Con- 
suls, etc., etc. 

Pius VI., now a venerable old man of four score 
years, remained meanwhile in the city although he 
could have easily made his escape. VThen arrested 

184 



ROME AND THE TOPES. 185 

he begged in the most urgent manner to be allowed to 
die in Rome. " One can die anywhere," rudely replied 
the officer in the most contemptuous tones. The 
venerable old man was sent a prisoner to France, 
where he sunk under the weight of his griefs, and 
expired at Valence on the 29th of August, 1799. 
"The last Pope is dead!" shouted the infidels and 
heretics throughout the world. 

Thus were those little peaceful states and their 
peaceful prince fallen upon, without any provoca- 
tion, by the French. The quiet march of progress 
was arrested and the States of the Church had to 
undergo more indignities, oppression and hardship 
than fell to the lot of any other portion of Europe 
even in those frightful years. Pius VI. had already 
by the treaty of Tolentino ceded the two patrimo- 
nies of Avignon and Venaissin to France. He had 
also given up the three legations of Ravenna, Ferrara 
and Romagna, and bound himself in the sum of thirty 
million francs besides. The Directory proposed terms 
of a concordat which the Pope had to reject. He was 
then to be deprived of all. But Bonaparte ad- 
monished them to be prudent. " The Popes' power," 
he tells them, "was still immense in Italy. I am con- 
vinced," he writes, "that Rome, once we have got 
possession of the provinces of Ferrara, Boulogna 
and the Romagna, with the thirty millions of francs 
to be paid us, can no longer hold up. The whole 
machine must fall to pieces of itself." Rome was 
then robbed of her finest monuments of art and 
letters. Palaces and churches had to give up their 
most costly objects. Eighty statues, a hundred 



186 ROME AND THE POPES. 

paintings, and five hundred manuscripts, all at the 
choice of the commissioners, were torn from the 
doomed city. Besides this, heavy supplies for the 
army and employees were levied upon the Romans, 
and large and shameless contributions in specie 
were extorted. Churches were plundered: bells were 
melted down for their metal, and those objects 
which could not be carried off or converted into 
money on the spot, were barbarously injured and 
destroyed. The richest families were reduced to 
beggary by the enormous and arbitrary exactions of 
those in power. The loss which the city and churches 
suffered, is inconceivable. Of three thousand pieces 
of sculpture that were known to have been taken 
away from the Papal States by the French, only 
twenty-two were afterwards returned. Twenty of 
the finest anticpies remained in the Paris museum, 
thirty thousand ancient coins and medals, together 
with the Vatican collection of precious stones, were 
likewise retained. Among the manuscripts that were 
afterwards returned, was the ancient uncial code of 
Virgil. It was magnificently bound when it came 
back but, the characters were cut into in the bind- 
ing in two different places. 

Tliis time the Romans held aloof from the re- 
volution, although the French had counted on their 
co-operation. It was the sans-cnlotte themselves 
with a parcel of Italian ragamuffins whom they had 
taken under their protection, that proclaimed the 
short-lived Republic. General Berthier after his in- 
glorious entry into the city, writes to Bonaparte: — 
" I am in Rome, and see only pale consternation on 



ROME AND THE POPES. 187 

every face : — no sign of freedom. Only one single 
patriot has presented himself to me. He offered to 
set two thousand galley-slaves free. You can easily 
judge how I received his proposition, etc." On the 
departure of the French, the Republic died out of 
itself. 

Pius VI., on his death-bed at Valence, ordered 
that the ring he wore on his finger should be hand- 
ed to his successor. He saw no human probability 
of his having any successor. But he was fully con- 
fident that the See of Peter should not remain 
vacant. The ring, that relic of his trials and his 
virtues was joyfully received by another and as 
great a Pius. 



xn. 

EOME, CAPITAL OF THE TIBER-DEPART- 
MENT. 

The meek Pius VII., the noble prince of peace, 
and silent sufferer, had, for eight long years, held 
out immoveable against the all-powerful Napoleon. 
The insatiable ambition of Bonaparte coveted those 
little states which were barely sufficient to insure 
the Pope's independence. The struggle between 
Napoleon and Pius affords one of the most instruct- 
ing lessons of history. Craft, flattery and persua- 
sion, threats and rude violence are all alike in- 
effectual. The humble Vicar of Christ has only the 
fear of God before his eyes, and in his soul there is 
only one spring of action, duty. For man, he cares 
nothing. His lamb-like patience is unconquerable 
and his irate and mighty opponent had, at length, 
to have recourse to force. 

In this moment of extreme danger to Rome, the 
Pope and his people were of one mind and one 
heart. The Romans looked up to their venerable 
father with feelings of tender affection. His steady 
constancy was strengthened by their prayers and 
his soul was buoyed up by their cordial devotion 
and encouragement. He knew what awaited him. 
He sought strength in constant prayer at the tomb 

188 



ROME AND THE POPES. 189 

of the Prince of tho Apostles to whom his divine 
Master had said: "Strengthen thy brethren." 

On the 17th of May, 1809, a decree was issued 
by the emperor, bearing: "The States of the Tope 
are united with the French empire." The French 
province of Rome was divided into the Trasimene 
and Tiber Departments. This wholesale robbery was 
sought to be defended in the following manner: 
"Whereas Charlemagne, emperor of the French, 
our illustrious predecessor, has given the bishops of 
Rome several small territories under the title of a 
fief for the better assurance of peace to his subjects, 
without, however, allowing Rome to cease to be a 
part of his empire; and, whereas, "the union of tho 
two powers hath ever since that time been the fruit- 
ful source of contentions, and is so still there- 
fore have we felt ourselves obliged, etc." 

On the 10th of June, while the French cannon 
announced the end of the States of the Church, the 
bull of excommunication against the authors of 
this robbery was also read in full daylight during 
the vesper service in the chief church of the city. 
This created immense excitement among the French 
Who were then in Rome. The Roman people stood 
bravely by their chief. But like him, they had to 
submit to force. The most distinguished of the 
nobility sent the Pope their thanks for the step he 
had taken, and the entire populace expressed their 
determination strictly to observe the dispositions of 
the bull, by avoiding all intercourse with those 
under the ban. This was on Sunday. Next day not 
a single one of the state or city employees wa** at 



190 ROME AND THE POPES., 

his post. They had rather sacrifice all than serve 
the new government. Even the porters and errand- 
boys of the custom house, the street scavengers and 
such like, were not to be found at their several 
places. It was only two days afterwards that the 
Pope issued an instruction prescribing the manner 
in which individuals should conduct themselves 
towards the French authorities. Such noble con- 
duct on the part of a population wholly unarmed 
in presence of those conquerors before whom all 
Europe shuddered at the time, is certainly worthy 
of all praise. The cardinals, the prelates, and the 
entire Roman clergy, as cardinal Pacca testifies, 
imitated the bold example of the Pope, thus leading 
the way for the people. 

General Miollis, military prefect of the new 
French province, wreaked his fury on those cardi- 
nals who had held any state offices. He drove them 
into exile or had them imprisoned like felons with- 
out any regard to justice or common decency. The 
Pope was urged formally to renounce the temporal 
power. The gentle Pius was found in his day of trial 
to possess the fortitude of a hero. He proved worthy 
of his high office, — worthy of the greatest of his 
predecessors. General Radet waited on him to say 
he had orders to arrest him if he persisted in his 
unwillingness to renounce all right to govern the 
States of the Church. AYlien the general apologeti- 
cally added that the duty was a very unwelcome 
one to himself but his oath to the Emperor left him 
no alternative but to perform it, the Pope replied in 
quiet dignity: "General, if you fancy yourself 



ROME AND "HE POPES. 191 

obliged to carry out such orders in virtue of your 
oath to the Emperor, you can well comprehend how 
much more strongly We must feel bound to uphold 
the rights of the Holy See, to do which, so many 
oaths compel Us. We cannot therefore renounce 
what does not belong to Us. The temporal sover- 
eignty of the States of the Church belongs to the 
entire Catholic world. We are but the administra- 
tor. The Emperor may put Us to death, may have 
Us hacked into a thousand pieces. But, bring Us to 
do this, never." Pius VII., as is known, was led off 
and cast into prison. Rome was then five years 
without a Pope. 

It was not altogether for the sake of the little 
territory of the States of the Church, which, at that 
time, would be only a bagatelle to Napoleon, that 
he had recourse to this extreme. It was because he 
was enraged at the independence which the Pope 
displayed when he refused at the Emperor's bidding 
to declare war on England and close his ports to 
English vessels. To this arbitrary command, Pius on- 
ly answered that, as Spiritual Father of all, he could 
make war on no nation. Besides, Napoleon want- 
ed of all things else, to destroy that very spiritual 
independence of tbe Pope. He wished to make the 
spiritual power subject to himself, to be able to 
direct its actions and use it as a tool for the further- 
ance of his views of conquest. He acknowledges 
this in the memoirs composed at St. Helena: "I did 
not doubt," he says, "but I could, in one way or an- 
other, acquire control over this Pope, and then, see 
what an influence that must have given me!" He 



192 ROME AND THE POPES. 

wished to have the Papal court at Paris, and make 
it a Franco-impei-ial institution which should give 
him a standing influence in all Catholic nations. 
But he failed to effect it. The imprisoned Pope, 
who was according to Napoleon's own testimony, 
as meek as a lamb, and as sweet as an angel, 
could never be brought to his views or induced to 
co-operate with the imperial policy. But the history 
of these five years demonstrates even to evidence 
what a superhuman degree of firmness that pope 
must possess to do his duty, who may ever happen 
to fall into the hands of king or kaiser, or be, in 
any way, subject to their power. If he act up to his 
duty, it will be a constant miracle. The sovereignty 
of the Papal States secures his independence, and 
so, fidelity to his trust in the natural course of 
things. By a miracle of history, the very punish- 
ment inflicted on Pius, fell afterwards to the lot of 
the haughty conqueror, who thus sought to destroy 
forever the independence of the Popes. 

That crime committed on the person of Christ's 
vicar was the turning point in Napoleon's fortunes. 
The giant that was never overcome, is suddenly 
struck blind. He was wounded in Spain, stunned in 
Russia, felled at Leipsic, disabled at Waterloo, and 
then chained to a lonely rock in mid ocean, to make 
bitter atonement for the deed. 

The conduct of the Romans during the French 
domination corresponded to what the illustrious 
prisoner of the emperor had witnessed with his own 
eves previous to the captivity. This noble conduct was 
already sufficiently known from history. But latterly 



ROME AND THE POPES.' 193 

we have had another testimony on the subject. The 
private secretary of Prince Napoleon has lately pub- 
lished a volume of diplomatical documents which 
are to verify what the prince was pleased to say in 
the senate, as to the evils of the Pontifical govern- 
ment. The secretary was certainly very unfortunate 
in his choice of documents. Those he selected go to 
prove the very contrary of what he intended. He 
supplies the very best matter for our purpose. Among 
many others, he cites the dispatches of one Ortoli. 
This Ortoli was an agent of the French government 
in Eome, at the time, the States of the Church were 
incorporated into the Empire. In a dispatch dated 
May 24, 1810, Ortoli writes: "We gain very little 
here with the native Italians. Most of them will be 
for a long time yet of very dubious fealty, and unfit 
to serve the Emperor wherever enthusiasm and un- 
wavering fidelity are required." 

Neither the agent who penned the dispatch, nor 
Prince Naj)oleon's secretary who has now given it 
to the public, seemed to have any idea of the praise 
therein awarded to the sterling loyalty and patriot- 
ism of the Koman people. In another dispatch, he 
says of the clergy: "The priests are still at their 
old lunes. Should we insist on their taking the 
oath, it is easy to see that all, save perhaps a very 
few, would refuse." 'Other 'documents are produced 
in proof of the bad government of the States of the 
Church. But the private secretary of Prince Napo- 
leon, M. Hubaine, seems to forget that all this 
throws discredit not on the Popes, but on the 
French who then governed the Koman States. These 
13 



194 KOME AND THE POPES. 

dispatches are taken from the official archives that 
cover the four years from 1809 to 1813. 

Pius YII. had seen to his states and to their 
capital as a good and prudent prince 'till he was 
carried into captivity. For testimony of this, we need 
only refer tj the French writers themselves of that 
period. When the Holy Father came in 1804 to the 
coronation of Napoleon in Paris, he was received 
enthusiastically by the different state corporations. 
The speaker of the corps legislatif, M. Fabre, who 
was still a strong republican addressed the Pontiff 
in the most eloquent and nattering terms as regards 
the government of the States of the Church. " If 
we consider your Holiness," be says, " as a temporal 
prince, we here find only additional motives for our 
praise and admiration. Your household and per- 
sonal expenses are but those of a private individual. 
Your Holiness seeks that true glory which consists 
not in the dazzle and pomp of an expensive court, 
but in a wise and judicious administration. Agricul- 
ture, trade, the fine arts, are in the most flourishing 
condition in the Roman States. Taxation is not ar- 
bitrary as of old, but is subject to just regulations 
and equally distributed among all." The orator then 
passed in review the regulations of the different de- 
partments of the Papal government, and eulogisti- 
cally alluded to the completion of the land-registra- 
tion in the Agro-Piomano, the premiums awarded to 
encourage agricultural improvement, the perfection 
in all that related to coinage, the introduction of 
cotton factories, the draining of the Pontine marches, 
etc., etc." Hu concludes: "The city of Rome not- 



KOME AND THE POPES. 195 

■withstanding all she lias suffered is still the home 
of the line arts. Your Holiness has caused further 
explorations to be made in Ostia. Every master- 
piece of art that could be purchased was procured. 
The triumphal arch of Septimius Severus stands out 
again to view, the Capatoline street is discovered, 
etc., etc." Many of these improvements disappeared 
under the ride of the French. 

By a decree of March 10, 1814, Napoleon who had 
now experienced a decisive reverse of fortune, gave 
back the States of the Church to the Pope. Pius VII. 
left his prison in Savona. Under a strong escort of 
French troops, he was conducted to the Taro where 
the victorious Austrians and Neapolitans were en- 
camped. A colonel of an Austrian regiment Radetz- 
ky had a bridge thrown across the stream for the 
passage of the Holy Father. As soon as the Pope 
set foot on Italian soil, Eadetzky cast himself in 
joy at his feet and exclaimed: "Holy Fathei", thou 
art free and treadest once more the free soil of thy 
native land." At this moment, the French troops 
on one side of the stream, and the allies on the 
other, all knelt to receive together the blessing of 
the Common Father of the faithful. The Pope en- 
tered Rome on the 21th of May. Arrived at the 
Mdvine bridge, the horses were unharnessed, silken 
ropes were attached to the carriage, and the Holy 
Father was drawn triumphantly through the Porto 
del Populo to St. Peter's by twenty-four young men 
of the best families in Rome. 

The countless multitude of the people welcomed 
back their king and High Priest with every demon- 



196 K03IE AND THE POPES. 

stration of joy, and all knelt to receive from his holy 
hands the blessing which he devoutly imparted in 
the name and by the power of the Eternal King and 
High Priest. This day — 24th of May — has since 
taken its place in the list of festivals, and is conse- 
crated to the Mother of God, under the title of Help 
of Christians — Auxilium Christianorum. This title 
given Mary, is a beautiful counterpart to that given 
her fourteen hundred years before by Pope Sylvester 
on the ceasing of the persecution — Gaudium Christia- 
norum, Joy of Christians. Mary is indeed the peace 
and the help of Christians, and she is especially the 
heavenly guardian of the successor of St. Peter and 
his See. 

During the years of the Pope's imprisonment, 
the population of Rome did not exceed a hundred 
and twenty thousand. On his return, it soon ran 
up to a hundred and eighty thousand. These figures 
may possibly be a little under or over the mark, but 
only a little. We have to quote from memory, hav- 
ing no statistics at hand. 



XIII. 
THE REPUBLIC OF ASSASSINATION. 

Rome underwent the same misfortune under 
Pius IX. that she did forty, and fifty years previous- 
ly under Pius VI. and Pius VII. She was again 
without a pope. This time it was no conquering 
despot dealt Rome the blow. It was given by Ital- 
ian hands, and, heavens! such hands! The Genoese 
Mazzini, the panegyrist of political assassins, and 
that scatter-brained fanatic of Nice, Garibaldi, are 
the captains of the band. The modern political 
ranter is not very unlike his crazy predecessor Cola 
di Rienzi, save that our Nicene is the sworn and 
deadly foe of the Church of God, which with all his 
faults, the Roman Tribune was not. This Garabaldi 
was the arm, Mazzini the head of the last Roman 
Republic. The whole fiasco only brought unspeak- 
able misery on Rome, and shame and contempt 
upon Italy. 

Pius IX. was elected on the 17th of June, 184G. 
His first act as temporal ruler of the States of the 
Church was the publication of a great plenary in- 
dulgence, such an indulgence as a king can grant, 
— a general amnesty to political offenders and the 
remission of all penalties incurred for political 
crimes — il Perdono. Unlike spiritual indulgences, 
contrition and confession, amendment and satisfac- 

197 



198 ROME AND THE POPES. 

tion were not required for the gaining of this. 
Nevertheless the paternal prince who granted it 
must have naturally expected the thanks and grati- 
tude of those .who were benefitted thereby. But alas! 
as regards most of them, he was bitterly disappointed. 
Those pardoned were utterly unworthy such an act of 
grace. Still the act itself remains a precious jewel 
in the crown of glory that encircles the brow of 
the magnanimous King-Priest. After this followed, 
at brief intervals, measures of the highest utility to 
the people. The different provinces were represent- 
ed in the government, a militia was organized, the 
city senate and municipal council were restored. 
"We know no case of a prince bestowing of his own 
free will, motu propria, bo many political rights and 
privileges on his subjects. Pius IX. thought he 
could place his subjects on as good a political footing 
as those of any other prince. Accordingly he en- 
trusted them with all those political privileges en- 
joyed by the people under other governments. 

The senate and representatives were to form the 
government. The house of representatives was that 
situated as Ave before remarked on the Capitol. The 
senate and city council waited on the new Pope at the 
Quirinal palace, to thank him in the people's name 
and receive his blessing ere they commenced their 
labors. Their president, Cardinal Altieri, thus ex- 
pressed himself on the occasion: "Prom this far- 
famed Quirinal, we now go to yon other famous 
hill, on which the fate of nations was so often dis- . 
cussed and decided. We rejoice that the warlike 
character of the Capitol has been changed into one 



EOME AND THE POPES.' 199 

of peace. There we shall enter that ancient temple," 
(for the celebration of the votive mass), "where we 
shall bo reminded of the prophetic voice that an- 
nounced the new era of peace and happiness to 
mankind." From this address, we see how vivid are 
the reminiscences of ancient times to this day in 
Borne, and also, how the city's olden monuments 
have become in modern Rome so many eloquent 
tongues proclaiming Christianity to the world. 

All the noble and truly patriotic Italians paid 
their respectful homage to the new Pope. Pius IX. 
was hailed on all sides with the most enthusiastic 
demonstrations. But the picture had its dark side 
too. By his unreserved amnesty, the Holy Father 
had cleared the way for the professional anarchists. 
They crowded into Borne. Those who before had to 
stay abroad and conduct their nefarious revolution- 
ary schemes from a distance, now pitched their 
headquarters under the very shadow of the Vatican. 
Meantime Pius IX. with his natural goodness of 
heart and simplicity of purpose pursued the work 
of reform. But these men wanted no reform. Be- 
volution was their aim. The mischief of their pres- 
ence was soon felt. The militia were brought under 
their influence. Whenever the maintenance of order 
or the protection of the government required its ser- 
vices, the soldiers evinced hesitation, unwillingness, 
inactivity. It was plain they could not be relied 
on in an emergency. "While all this was going on 
in the dark, the very men who were in league with 
Mazzini were most demonstrative in their devotion 
to Pius IX., and most prodigal in his praises for the 



200 ROME AND THE POPES. 

measures lie had inaugurated. The great object was 
to wheedle the honest-hearted Pius into a war with 
Austria, and get him at the head of an Italian up- 
rising against the German. The opposition of the 
Pope to taking any part in such a war, determined 
the opposite party to deprive him of all power. A 
revolutionary ministry under Mamiani was forced 
on him. He appointed the able duke Eossi, former- 
ly French ambassador in Rome, his prime minister. 
There was still every appearance that, with the as- 
sistance of Rossi, he could restore order again and 
curb the already Wide-spread revolutionary spirit. 
Seeing this, the leaders of the revolution, Mazzini, 
Sterbini, Ciceruacchio, and others doomed Rossi to 
death as the man whose energy was lifiely to defeat 
their plans. 

Rossi was to open parliament on the 15th of 
November. Hours in advance, the lobbies and 
vestibules, and the streets which led to the senate- 
house, were all thronged. The ministeral carriage 
drew up at the foot of the steps. There the crowd 
and the jam was designedly closer. The minister 
stepped from his carriage and moved to ascend the 
steps. He was received with shouts and hisses. A 
rude blow was struck him. As Rossi turned to 
see whence the blow had come, an assassin on the 
other side, plunged a double-edged dagger into his 
neck. The blow was aimed by a practised hand. 
An artery was opened and the Pope's minister lay 
dying in his gore at the threshold of that palace in 
which measures for the constitutional liberties of 
the citizens were about to be introduced. Most of 



KOME AND THE POPES. 201 

those around were revolutionists. Of course, no one 
arrested the assassin. Many, if not all of them- 
selves had, at one time or another, been guilty of a 
similar crime. The members who had already as- 
sembled in the house, were constrained by the ban- 
ditti to proceed with the discussion of their para- 
graphs as though nothing had occurred. The scenes 
of horror that now followed in the "Eternal City," 
we forbear describing. The Vatican was stormed. 
The Pope narrowly escaped and fled to Gaeta. All 
power fell into the hands of Mazzini and Garibaldi. 
'Twere hard to exaggerate the disorders that en- 
sued. Farini, a radical writer of the day, tells us 
that the parliament huddled together under Mazzini 
was composed of notorious characters and stupid 
boobies who knew absolutely nothing of political 
affairs. The murderer of Kossi received a grand, 
ovation. The instrument of the deed, il sacro pug- 
nale, was exhibited publicly in the streets of Eome, 
and the event celebrated in hymns and chansons in 
the evenings. One of the numerous assassins took 
up his quarters in St. Callisto. When the Republic 
fell, no less than fifteen bodies, mostly of Romans, 
priests or religious, were found in the adjoining gar- 
den. The inhuman wretch had murdered his vic- 
tims for mere pastime. 

The "Eternal City" was now a den of thieves. 
It was a grand reservoir of crime. All the ruffians 
not only of Italy but also of other lands hurried 
to Rome. Most of the churches were plundered and 
nearly all profaned. The bells were melted down 
and converted into a worthless currency. On Easter- 



202 EOME AND THE POPES. 

Sunday Mazzini came forward on the Loggie whence 
the Pope on that morning was wont to impart his 
benediction to the entire world — urbi et orbi — and 
proclaimed Eome a republic. Bobbing, stealing, 
burglary, forgery, — with these, Mazzini's republic 
commenced, and such, too, was the order of the 
day, till it was at an end. The French arrived and 
easily took the city by storm from Garibaldi and 
his crew. 

"What intensifies our disgust at this republic is, 
that assassination was formally sanctioned by these 
republicans and adopted into their system of gov- 
ernment. In the most reckless and desperate char- 
acters, we generally find some spark of humanity 
remaining which, even when all other moral senti- 
ment is gone, makes them shrink from deliberately 
taking a human life. What then could be thought of 
these modern " Boman republicans" who could with 
brutal indifference practise cold-blooded and sys- 
tematic assassination? They must have already 
descended to the lowest conceivable depths of moral 
turpitude. 

During the sixty-nine days of the Bepublic, the 
inhabitants of Borne and the States of the Church 
were forced to drink the hot chalice of the revolu- 
tion to the bitter dregs. Foreign ruffians roamed 
over the country, terrified and abused the inhabi- 
tants, burned, robbed and wasted. Deeds of infamy 
were perpetrated without number as without re- 
morse: fear and terror reigned throughout. Who- 
ever could at all, betook themselves to fl-'ght on the 
approach of the miscreants calling themselves the 



ROME AND THE POPES. 2U3 

"Republic" and "republicans." This was a Roman 
Republic without Romans, and indeed without repub- 
licans, for history tells only of banditti, assassins and 
robbers. 

Thus the argument, that Rome, if not the city of 
St. Peter, is shnply nothing, and can be nothing, is 
affirmed in every epoch of history, and we have seen 
it, even in our own day, again receive the most 
signal confirmation. 



XIV. 

THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHTH 
PETER AND HIS *ROME. 

None of the two hundred and fifty-seven suc- 
cessors of the Prince of the Apostles bore the name 
of Peter. These men were of different conditions 
in life, different extraction, different nationalities, 
different characters. Yet in this long line of rulers, 
a unity that almost amounts to identity is observ- 
able, so that, taking them all together, Peter's suc- 
cessors may be said to be one person with himself. 

As there is nothing in the world's history greater 
than the Catholic Church, so there is nothing grander 
or more exalted in the Church than the Papacy. The 
Papacy has had a historical development replete 
with ever varying and astonishing vicissitudes. But 
in all the divers phases of its history, that same law 
which governs the life of the Church, the law of 
growth, of steady development from within, is also 
unmistakably apparent in the Papacy. It is this 
which gives it its strength, which makes it imperish- 
able. To all outward appearance this wonderful in- 
stitution appears under the most unpropitious cir- 
cumstances. It is no strong monarchy grounded on 
family inheritance where the father opens the way 
to the son, where each king feels that his blood will 
beat in the pulse of each of his successors through 

20i 



ROME AND TIIE POPES. 



20. r 



long generations. Neither is it a powerful aristocra- 
cy, nor a somite, transmitting tlieir powers us well as 
their names to their heirs, and so, by handing down 
the family traditions as well as the family name, 
making the generations of ages as but one man. The 
Papacy is an elective monarchy. The term of each 
reigu is generally only a very few years. The throne 
is often vacant, and consequently it is naturally the 
most unstable form of government. Behold that 
long line of old men many of whom reign only a 
few months or even a few days. And yet, Peter 
reigns in each of his successors, and his spirit ani- 
mates them still, after a lapse of eighteen hundred 
years. Whence this phenomenon ? It is not surely 
in the natural order of things. It comes of tho 
power and protection of God on Whose word the 
Papacy is grounded. Christ tested Peter's faith, and 
then appointed him in His own stead. He made him 
the corner-stone of His Church, gave him the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven, and entrusted him with 
power to bind and to loose. Peter's love was first 
proved, and then the Saviour conferred on him the 
supreme power in His Church, by these words: 
"Feed My sheep, feed My lambs." The entire edi- 
fice of the Church arose through the working of the 
Holy Ghost upon the foundation stone thus laid. 
These few words : " Feed My lambs, feed My sheep" 
come ringing down through time as if constantly 
uttered by the voice of God. They are pregnant 
with great results, and though verified each instant, 
can only receive their complete fulness in the lapse 
of ages. He who uttered them is the Logos the 



206 



ROME AND THE POPES. 



Word of God made man. His words quickeneth 
unto life. His Spirit disposeth all things sweetly, 
and abides with, and watches in a particular man- 
ner over the Church. Hence the words which her 
divine Founder addressed to Peter when He made 
him the foundation of His Church are now equally 
applicable, as if again addressed in j^erson by Christ 
Himself to St. Peter's successor, Pius IX. The lat- 
ter is, as Peter was, the Church's visible head. He 
is the central point round which all must revolve; 
he has charge of the flocks and herds, as Peter had, 
and to him, as to Peter, is given the command: 
' ' Strengthen thy brethren." 

And gloriously does Pio Nono, the loved shep- 
herd of our souls, fulfil his task. As was written on 
the basis of that statue of St. Peter of which we 
spoke page : " Standing firm on that rock divine- 
ly hewn, he staggers not," but strengthens his 
brethren all round. In his noble and saintly soul is 
the living faith of a world, the faith of the entire- 
human race. 

Peter was not what he was, for his own sake. It 
was for the sake of the Church, for the good of the 
entire human race, he was invested with the prima- 
tial prerogatives. 

In like manner, his successors are not to be con- 
sidered as individual men, but as belonging to the 
whole Church and holding a trust for her sake. In 
something of the same light must we view that city 
in which Peter fixed his see, thereby making it 
the capital of Christendom. It is no longer a city 
like other cities existing for its own sake and for its 



ROME AND THE POPES.- 207 

immediate surrounding territory. Through Peter 
and his successors it was indued with a character of 
universality. Koine is not in figure, but in very 
deed, the queen city of the world, the capital of 
Christendom. In its existence lies a significance and 
a scope, all divine. In Rome, stone and marble, with 
the reminiscences annexed to them, have become 
tablets or landmarks in the region of the spiritual 
world. There, one feels a connexion between the 
place and the events of history, such as is noAvhere 
else perceived. Everything stands in close relation 
with the imperishable Church of God. The city it- 
self is bound up forever with the Papacy. All that 
strikes the eye speaks of Christ and of his Church. 
Of Rome, in a particular manner, may the words of 
the Apostle be used: "The invisible things of God 
are understood by the things that are made." Stone 
and marble, at Rome, are not mere stone and mar- 
ble. There, those works of art chiselled into such 
beauty,, do not simply proclaim the fame of the ar- 
tist, who chiselled them. To him who hath eyes to 
see, they speak of great deeds entailing eternal con- 
sequences wrought here by God's servants, — they 
speak of the eternal truths of salvation. God laid 
His own divine impression on this city, when His 
hand imparting an everlasting blessing rested on the 
head of the Prince of the Apostles. 

And what has the Peter of our day done for this 
city? As regards spiritual things he is constantly 
pouring upon her the fulness of grace. He loves the 
Romans, as a father does his children. He adorns 
their city with new and magnificent monuments of 



ZU» * ROME AND THE POPES. 

faith, of charity, of letters, art and industry. He 
allows them as large a measure of municipal free- 
dom as any city can boast of. He, the Priest-King, 
gives the laity not merely a small share of political 
power, not merely half but, a full nine-tenths. He, 
the sublime representative of authority upon earth, 
gives to all earthly things, as far as they are good 
and harmless, their fullest sphere of action. 

This close relation of the Pope with the City, 
since it first sprung into being, is the normal 
condition of Rome. It is necessary for the general 
well-being of the entire Church, and is absolutely 
indispensable for the freedom of the Pope. As we 
remarked, it was often sorely disturbed in the course 
of centuries. But it was never disturbed, without 
the Church and civil society becoming thereby the 
sufferers. The Church came out triumphantly from 
these trials. She was only purified by them. Not so, 
European society. The existence of the latter is not 
guaranteed by any divine promise. That was often 
shivered to its very base, and seemed at times actual- 
ly in its death-struggle. When the Pope was for- 
cibly driven out of Pome and flung into a prison, 
there, w r as the Church, too: "Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia." 
It matters little whether his prison be a fortified 
town like Gaeta, or be a dungeon in Yalence, Savo- 
na, or Jerusalem. The rock on which the Church is 
built, is found wherever Peter is. Round him are 
gathered the faithful of the entire Church. Their 
prayers and petitions ascend to the throne of God 
for their imprisoned High-Priest. God hears their 
prayers and restores them Pius as he did Peter of 



ROME AKD THE POPES. ' 209 

old. But woe to him who puts forth his hand against 
that rock. He shall be dashed to pieces, and he on 
whom that rock descends shall be crushed to atoms. 
It were almost worth while to subjoin hereto the 
work of Lactantius : "De mortibus persecutorum" for 
the special information of all present and future per- 
secutors of the Popes. Lactantius does not chron- 
icle many deeds of blood in his book, but portrays 
the dark windings of deceit and treachery towards 
the Roman pontiffs, which caused them to suffer a 
martyrdom of soul at the hands of wily diplomatists. 
How comes it, then, that this Rome so essentially 
the city of St. Peter's successor, — his, by every right 
and title, his, in a way that no other city can be said to 
belong to king or kaiser, prince or commonwealth — 
how comes his possession of this city to be questioned 
in our times? Why is it that all means are resorted to, 
to rob him of this patrimony ? Heathenism which his- 
tory tells us was cast long since out of this city, is 
now returned with seven other unclean spirits still 
worse than itself, and is striving to regain posses- 
sion of its former seat of empire. Every nerve is 
strained to undermine the Papacy, which is the 
foundation of the Church, and thereby to bring 
ruin on the entire structure. What forces but those 
impelled by the powers of darkness, could stand so 
arrayed against the Church ? The war is between 
Heathenism and Christianity. What men hate in the 
Pope, what maddens the revolutionists against him, 
is not that he is a temporal prince or head of a 
good or bad government. They hate Peter in him, 
they hate the " Rock," they hate him as the head of 



210 ROME AND THE POPES. 

the Catholic Church which has warred against, and 
consequently been hated by, heathenism for the last 
eighteen hundred years. Let the Pope act fatherly 
or despotically towards his subjects, let the Church 
be mild or severe, refined or barbarous, learned or 
unlearned— the Pope is still the Vicar of Christ, the 
Church is the divine work of his hands. In effect, 
it is against Christ, that the war carried on against 
Pope or Church, is waged. Heathenism is the one 
great eternal enemy of Christ and Christ's Church. 
At different periods it but assumed different names 
and appearances. To-day it is the revolution — the 
revolution whether on the throne, in the streets, or 
in the dens of thieves and midnight assassins. 

It is now a hundred years since a man but too 
famous, and as fascinating as he was famous, — a man 
whose genius had all the dazzle and brillancy of a 
fallen spirit, and whose heart like such spirit was 
devoid of all moral feeling, and completely hardened 
in depravity, — since Voltaire in frantic hate of Christ 
raised the cry against that Church shouting " crush 
the wanton" — "Ecrasez Vinfame." Voltaire's follow- 
ers have ever since echoed and still repeat the blas- 
phemer's "Ecrasez." Their modes of attack are vari- 
ous but it is all one and the same crusade against 
the Church of Christ. Voltaire's friend, Frederic II., 
wrote him at the time: "The ea^y conquest of the 
Papal States may likewise be looked forward to. 
This done, the Pallium is ours, and the history of 
the Papacy is over. For no potentate in Europe 
would be willing to acknowledge the subject of an- 
other power, as the Vicar of Christ. All will then, 



KOME AND THE POPES. 211 

each for his own states, set up a patriarch .... By 
and by, each ruler will break from tbat unity of the 
Church, and we shall then have in each kingdom a 
native religion as well as a native tongue." 

Bravo ! Frederic. This is plain speaking, and 
none of Voltaire's followers whose name is legion 
could set forth the ends and aims of their machina- 
tions in rounder and clearer terms. But your words 
are. sufficient. They go straight to the mark. AH 
else is moonshine. Italian nationality, popular vot- 
ing, deliverance of the Romans: — this is all gammon. 
It can only be intended to deceive and ensnare the 
simple. "Rome or death:" this, the cry of heatheiir 
ism against the Catholic Church. It is war, and war 
to the knife, between the two. All we hear, means 
this. It is only Garibaldi and Mazzini who openly 
espouse the doctrines of Frederic II. and Voltaire, 
the one in the language of a barbarous freebooter, 
the other as the gloomy dark mysterious bandit. 

And these views accord exactly with the ideas of 
the day. Men's minds are as it were infected with 
a pest. The one star which lit up the moral world 
is lost sight of. While these men deliberately turn 
their backs upon this light, they would persuade us 
they are called upon to lead mankind to the highest 
pinnacle of perfection. They must renovate all 
things, create new principles of government, alter 
the existing social relations, and give a different 
direction to the course of events. In a word they 
must shape the future of the world. History treads 
too slowly for them. They cannot wait till things 
develop in the natural way and into their natural 



212 ROME AND THE POPES. 

find proper proportions. They must create all. In 
this vain striving, they waste their energies and their 
lives, and too often find, that the events they labored 
so earnestly to bring about for certain ends, stand 
like giants on their own path. They then discover 
that, after working their whole lives long, they have 
but effected the very contrary of what they wished. 
It is only he who serves God, that can be sure he is 
not laboring in vain. This is as true of the ruler of 
empires as it is of the simple peasant. The man 
who does this, understands that every act and effort 
of his life, should be directed to the one end of de- 
veloping in his being the germs of that higher life 
which the grace of God originally planted in his 
soul. This, the man feels and acknowledges with 
humility. In all he does, in all he undertakes, this 
is his guiding star. Such the elementary principle- 
simple and natural that a child may seize it— which 
guides the successor of St. Peter. This was the 
natural foundation of their supernatural wisdom; 
this the secret of their prudence in earthly things, a 
prudence that might put to shame the ablest and 
keenest diplomatists. The policy of him whom we 
now venerate in the chair of Peter, is equally simple. 
Pius IX. does not force events or unnaturally strive 
to shape them. He accepts what God sends in the 
natural course of things and endeavors according to 
the dictates of Christian wisdom, to make the best 
of circumstances. His only wish is to diffuse heav- 
enly light, and life, and love, through all, and at the 
same time to advance as far as may be, the temporal 
welfare of his subjects. He is ever ready to grant 



ROME AND THE POPES. 213 

them the fullest measure of political power they are 
capable of using, and prefers to entrust them rather 
with too much, than too little political liberty. His 
Romans love him in return as a Father, and they 
reverence him as their king-priest. It is only a few 
of the most worthless among them who side with 
his enemies. The lessons of the past have not been 
lost on them. The Roman nobility last year afford- 
ed us a proof of what we assert. A committee has 
been formed exclusively from the ranks of the no- 
bility, for the defence of the Holy See. The names 
of all the first families in Rome are enrolled on the 
list. A special committee waited on the Holy Father 
and informed him that the Roman nobility placed 
their lives and lands, as needs be, at his disposal. 
Pius IX. was touched by this display of loyalty. He 
accepted the offer, and replied that he would be 
proud to avail himself of the same, should it ever 
become needful. This was the last news that the 
year 1866 brought us from Rome. 

Such the relation of the present successor of St. 
Peter to his City, to his States, to the world. His 
toils and his thoughts must indeed be directed to 
the events of the day, but eternity is what he holds 
chiefly in view. He knows that no immediate con- 
trol over the things of this world was entrusted to 
him. It may happen that in some catastrophe 
brought on by man's rashness or short-sighted am- 
bition, St. Peter's successor may be seized on and 
bound, as Peter was of yore, and led whither he 
would not. But such danger will not blanch Pio 
Nono or cause him to vacillate. His faith is firm. 



214 ROME AND THE POPES. 

He is not to be shaken. Storms may arise. Let 
them. Pio's eye is steadily fixed on a polar star that 
never sets, and neither tempest nor sunshine can 
turn him a single point from the steady course of 
duty. 

Many years ago — the clouds on the political 
horizon were then slowly darkening — the writer of 
these lines was one day overtaken by a sudden storm 
in the neighborhood of the Borgo. He hastened to 
the shelter of the colonade before St. Peter's and 
entered the Church. While there waiting for the 
storm to blow over, he knelt at the marble balus- 
trade that surrounds the tomb of the Apostle. After 
a little, the weather cleared up. The sun burst 
through the heavy clouds. The light streamed into 
the lofty dome overhead, and suddenly lit up, as if 
by magic, those prophetic words running round the 
frieze of the dome, giving them the appearance of a 
crown of glory over the tomb : "Thou art Peter, and 

UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, AND I SHALL 
GIVE TO THEE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 

Many of those who visit Pome are struck with 
the effect thus produced by the sunshine on the in- 
side of the dome. It is one of those many beauties 
in that wondrous work that were never calculated 
on by the architect. These grand gilded letters thus 
gorgeously lit up over the tomb of St. Peter, telling 
us that the Church is built upon a rock, inspire the 
soul with confidence. As we remarked in a former 
place, one sees, as it were, and feels all through 
Pome, the immediate presence of God and the 
working of the Holy Spirit in the Church. This it 



ROME AND THE POPES. 215 

is perhaps which gives Christ's Vicar that rock-like 
firmness whereby he stands forth a noble model to 
the bishops of the world, strengthening them and 
all his children in the faith. 

Those words of Christ that we have quoted as- 
sure the Church that, in spite of all the storms that 
may roar around her, in spite of all the powers of 
hell, she is to last to the consummation of the world. 
The linking of her foundation stone with that city 
of eternal fame is clearly the work of God. Shall 
that connection be severed ? Although reason may 
not give the answer to this question as clearly as it 
is given by the voice of faith, yet even for the former 
there is the long period of eighteen hundred years 
to judge by. We may argue of the future from the 
past. Judging from this we dare boldly say that, 
notwithstanding all the efforts of his enemies, the 
Pope will, in the future, as in the past, continue at 
Eome and thence forever govern the Church of 
Christ. This confidence seems to animate the Peter 
of our day, the imperturbable Pius. In the moment 
of his greatest danger he calmly summons the 
bishops of the entire world to Eome to that spot of 
the old unchangeable " Deus Terminus," to witness 
the ideal as well as the actual union of the Pope 
with his city, and to renew, together with their 
august chief, the old landmark, which Peter eighteen 
hundred years ago set up in Roman soil. 



END. 



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